Powerset Suggestion: Plasma Projection

[malonkey1]

Plasma Projection

 

 

The hydrogen bomb, the stars in the sky and you all have one thing in common: You're all roiling fonts of charged plasma, capable of blasting foes with a gout of superheated gases that both burn and stun those around you. While you may not have the immediate up-front damage of some other ranged attackers, you make up for it with your ability to debilitate several opponents at once with your Ionic Charge.

 

Plasma Projection is designed to resemble the attacks of characters like Havok or Starfire. It's intended as an AoE focused set, with less punch out of the gate compared to similar sets, but with a greater ability for crowd control.

 

Archetypes

Plasma Projection is a ranged attack set for Blasters, Defenders, Corruptors and Sentinels.

 

Mechanics

Plasma Projection has a mechanic called Ion Charge. Charge can build up to three stacks. As the stacks increase, each attack power has an increasing chance to knock down opponents and a slight -Res component as Charge increases. Some powers do not build Ionic Charge, and instead consume a player's built up Charge stacks to add an extra effect that scales with it.

 

Plasma Projection attacks deal Fire and Energy damage.

 

	Name	Primary	Secondary	Description
	Plasma Arc	1	1	Narrow Cone (Ranged), Minor DMG (Fire/Energy). +Ion Charge
	Helium Bolt	1	2	Ranged, Moderate DMG (Fire/Energy). +Ion Charge.
	Lithium Whip	2	4	Cone (Short Range), Moderate DMG (Fire/Energy). +Ion Charge
	Ion cloud	6	10	Ranged (Placeable AoE), Minor DoT (Fire/Energy), Foe Slow. Consumes Ion Charge
	Fusion	8	16	Self +ToHit, +DMG. Max Out Ion Charge
	Coronal Loop	12	20	Wide Cone (Ranged), High DMG (Fire/Energy), Scaling DoT (Fire/Energy) Consumes Ion Charge
	Plasma Eruption	12	20	Sniper, High DMG (Fire/Energy), Immobilize, -Def(All), -Res(All) Consumes Ion Charge (Suggested by NovaCat as replacement for Coronal Loop)
	Tritium Blast	18	28	Short Range (TAoE), High DMG (Fire/Energy), Foe Knockdown. +Ion Charge
	Chain reaction	26	35	Ranged (3 Placeable AoEs), High DMG (Fire/Energy), Chance for KD. Consumes Ion Charge
	Starburst	32	38	Toggle, PBAoE Extreme DoT(Fire/Energy), Delayed -END, -DMG, Detoggle.

 

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Powers, Alphabetically:

 

Chain Reaction

Ranged (3 Placeable AoEs), High DMG (Fire/Energy), Chance for KD. Consumes Ion Charge

You ignite a serious of plasma bursts in up to three spots, dealing high fire and energy damage. If you have Ion Charge built up, this power deals more damage and has a chance to knock opponents down.

Set Categories: Targeted AoE Damage, Knockback

Notes: This power would likely borrow the multiple-click place effect that Burst of Speed uses to place its AoEs. It can be used to help slow down stragglers with its KD, as well as dealing with widely-dispersed enemies. The KD from Ionic Charge doesn't stack with this.

 

Coronal Loop

Wide Ranged Cone, High DMG (Fire/Energy), DoT (Fire/Energy), Consume Ion Charge

You can create a wide arc of charged plasma that lashes out at enemies in front of you, dealing high fire and energy damage. If you have Ion Charge, this power consumes all stacks of it and applies a fire/energy damage over time effect based on how many stacks were consumed.

Set Categories: Targeted AoE Damage, Knockback

Notes: A pretty simple Cone blast with a DoT for Ionic Charge that can help keep it useful if you're stuck in single-target fights.

 

Fusion

Click: +To-Hit, +DMG, Max Out Ion Charge

You ignite a fusion reaction within your own body, maxing out your Ion Charge to three stacks and granting you a substantial bonus to hit and damage for a short time.

Set Categories: To-Hit Buff

Notes: A Basic Aim-alike that ties into the set's mechanic.

 

Helium Bolt

Ranged: Moderate DMG (Fire/Energy), +Ion Charge

You propel a blob of compressed, superheated noble gases at your target, dealing moderate fire and energy damage. This power builds 1 stack of Ion Charge.

Set Categories: Ranged Damage, Knockback

Notes: A Pretty basic T2 blast.

 

Ion Cloud

Ranged (Location AoE), Minor DoT (Fire/Energy), Foe Slow, Foe Immobilize (Mag = Ion Charge Stacks), Consume Ion Charge

You can create a cloud of violently charged plasma particles that deals minor fire and energy damage over time to those caught in it, as well as slowing them. If you have Ion Charge, this power will also consume that charge and Immobilize enemies that enter the cloud.

Set Categories: Targeted AoE Damage, Slow, Knockback

Notes: Simlar to Blizzard, but with a much lower damage output, and more focus on slowing enemies that killing them. The KD from Charge applied to anyone inside the field.

 

Lithium Whip

Short Cone, Moderate DMG (Fire/Energy). +Ion Charge

You lash out with a stream of metallic plasma, dealing moderate fire and energy damage to nearby enemies in front of you. This power builds Ion Charge

Set Categories: Targeted AoE Damage, Knockback

Notes: Does a whip made of plasma make sense? No. Is it cool? Yes. Also, I specifically chose a whip so that the whip from Demon Summoning could be modified and reused for it.

 

Plasma Arc

Narrow Ranged Cone, Minor DMG (Fire/Energy). +Ion Charge

You project a line of plasma that arcs through one or more opponens in a narrow cone in front of you, dealing minor fire and energy damage.

Set Categories: Targeted AoE Damage, Knockback

Notes: I wanted to hammer in early on that this is an AoE-heavy set, so I made the T1 a narrow cone (a bit like Piercing Shot). Most of the time, it will function like a normal T1 blast, but if the player's lucky, they can hit a couple targets at once.

 

Plasma Eruption

Sniper, High DMG (Fire/Energy), Foe Immobilize. Scaling -Def and -Res with Charge. Consumes Charge

You can focus your plasma blast into a tightly-confined ray that can weld its target to the ground. If you have Ionic Charge built up, this power also reduces the target's defense and damage resistances and consumes charge.

Set Categories: Ranged Damage, Sniper, Knockback, Defense Debuff, Accurate Defense Debuff, Immobilize

Notes This set's take on sniper attacks. It provides another ST attack for boss/av situations, and can give a nice debuff hit when used with Fusion or late in a fight when you have Charge built up. Came from a suggestion by Novacat.

 

Starburst

Toggle: PBAoE Extreme DoT (Fire/Energy)

You can overload yourself, creating a superheated cloud of plasma that inflicts large amounts of fire and energy damage over time to enemies near you for a short time.

Set Categories: PBAoE Damage, Knockback

Notes: The set's Nuke. I wanted to make it a little different, so instead of a regular one-and-done nuke, I made it a PBAoE DoT effect that ticks a few times before going out. (it was originally a toggle that detoggled itself in an earlier writeup).

 

Tritium Blast

Short Range Targeted AoE: High DMG (Fire/Energy), Foe Knockdown. +Ion Charge

You can create a minor fusion explosion centered on a target, knocking them off their feet and dealing high fire and energy damage. This power builds Ion Charge.

Set Categories: Targeted AoE Damage, Knockback

Notes: This set is pretty cone-heavy, so I wanted a simple TAoE available for when you can't position yourself for a cone. Similar to Energy Blast's Explosive Blast. The KD doesn't stack with the KD from Ionic Charge.

 

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Any thoughts or opinions? Does it seem like it would be balanced? Because I'm wondering if the Stun proc from Ion Charge might be too much, or would have to be so low as to be too unreliable to be worth worrying about.

[jack_nomind]

So first, as always, it's a visual treat to see your writeups.

 

As for the set itself -- hmm.  Hmm.  I'm not sure I see Havok or Starfire as 'controller-y.'  I'd almost go with a reverse-combo system in this theme; your big attacks bring the pain but put debuff stacks or DoTs on you, which you have to burn off with the little ones.

 

I do love the narrow cone in a T1.

[justicebeliever]

Malonkey - This really is a great write-up  +1 Inf

[Novacat]

First, why not call "Ion Charge" "Ionization" or even just "charge"? Just that "Ion Charge" doesn't really roll off the tongue that well.

-Def seems really bleh these days what with IOs everywhere, and the stun would either be too low a chance to be worth bothering trying to stack for any use, or be high enough that it becomes a problem the other way.

 

But, Lithium Whip (how far CAN that animation be made anyways?) gave me a thought on the matter. Remember Grand Fulmination, from Dragon's Dogma? We have a set that improves teammates through the -res debuff, but what if Ion Charge instead gave those nearby a small tickle of plasma damage to their attacks? And what if, in relation to jack_nomind's suggestion ... every other stack or so buffed everyone this way, making it double-edged if not careful? Maybe a max of 6 stacks?

 

In regards to the powers that have no special effect: Water/s Tide system did not preclude them having one, so either Ion's a much bigger deal, or they're missing something.

 

Plasma Arc: A T1 Piercing Rounds/Beam variant, I can dig it.

Helium Bolt: Given it has no other effects, either this needs to be doing Fire levels of damage or get a little something of its own

Lithium Whip: As wide and long and lightningy as the animation can be made; it's a Blast set not a mastermind's pet filler after all

Ion Cloud: This, actually, probably shouldn't slow or immob too much. Already a lot of the placeables come with a slow already and this one's its own Immob so it's even more self-contained than most. So how about something that actually wants you to use something to keep things there?

 

> Alternative Suggestion: "Plasma Globe": A blindingly-incandescent field (think flash arrow or an overly bright smoke grenade effect that lingers) dealing high damage over time with a to-hit penalty to enemies within. Consuming charge buffs allies standing in the cloud, effectively keeping the level of charge that has been burnt off (and thus is no longer buffing enemies) while they remain within the field.

 

Fusion: Max charge here would make your alpha strike quite nice but any return alpha a whole lot nastier. Personally I'd like that, but YMMV

 

Jacob's Ladder: Name already taken. Other than the name badly needing a change, I'd suggest swapping this out for a plasma take on snipes entirely. The set does NOT currently have a third single target power (it has two, arguably only ONE single target out of the 7 attacks even if one's more of a "hit two, every once in a while hit three instead" affair). That's even more AoE heavy than the warcrime that is Water (it has Four). How about an electron beam to weld the bastards? This could be your built in immobilize, and consumes charge (if you have any) for a variable level of Melt Armor?

 

Tritium Blast: Rather than short range (they've normalized ranges for the most part by i24 because those 40ft non-cones were a chore to use) make it a small radius. Another semi-single-target, a high damage but small AoE (like radius 8 or 10 with a 6 target cap), a bit expensive for non-blasters (as we have a Sustain) to use as a single target power but otherwise becomes your T3 equivalent and a second pseudo-AoE-pseudo-single power a-la Piercing. Plasma Arc and Tritium Blast; your two "I can use this either way I guess" powers.

 

Chain Reaction: I love the triple-tap format similar to a Burst of Speed that doesn't move you, but that's probably going to have to add up to  high damage if concentrated, and be basically your "I want things on their ass" variable control power. If you really want it to hurt, you'll concentrate or slot it for procs.

 

Starburst: Well I guess there's enough targeted that this would be a Point-Blank, but you do know there's no longer an end-crash and recovery debuffs on nukes nowadays right? It can probably just be formulated as a short lived DoT field anchored to you, rather than something you actually toggle on or off. Like, 4 ticks that add up to maybe 325 blaster base (instead of 250.2 but not as high as Inferno) but isn't pure damage after all (if you're wise you were stealthed and their counter-alpha is debuffed).

 

 

Overall I love the concept, but it IS a bit too heavily skewed on AoE - thus my suggestions - as it would be a problem when soloing and coming up against Elites and Archvillains. Switching one of the AoEs to a 'hybrid' and another to a snipe would greatly alleviate the issues while still offering extreme levels of crowd focus.

[Leogunner]

Hmmm, what do you use to make those icons?

[malonkey1]

First, why not call "Ion Charge" "Ionization" or even just "charge"? Just that "Ion Charge" doesn't really roll off the tongue that well.

 

The name isn't terribly important to me, honestly. Ionization is a bit quicker to say.

 

-Def seems really bleh these days what with IOs everywhere, and the stun would either be too low a chance to be worth bothering trying to stack for any use, or be high enough that it becomes a problem the other way.

 

Well, I didn't want to do -Res, as that didn't feel like it fit too well with plasma and seemed more fitting for if we had a toxic blast set, Psi already has -Rech, and Dark has -ToHit. What about having a scaling chance for Knockdown rather than stun? It lets us get away with having a higher chance to proc, but it's still useful for soft control.

 

But, Lithium Whip (how far CAN that animation be made anyways?) gave me a thought on the matter. Remember Grand Fulmination, from Dragon's Dogma? We have a set that improves teammates through the -res debuff, but what if Ion Charge instead gave those nearby a small tickle of plasma damage to their attacks? And what if, in relation to jack_nomind's suggestion ... every other stack or so buffed everyone this way, making it double-edged if not careful? Maybe a max of 6 stacks?

 

Well, giving nearby players A +DoT proc effect is kind of a weird effect for a blast set, but I honestly can't say it isn't interesting.

 

Ion Cloud: This, actually, probably shouldn't slow or immob too much. Already a lot of the placeables come with a slow already and this one's its own Immob so it's even more self-contained than most. So how about something that actually wants you to use something to keep things there?

 

Honestly, I considered making it an Immobilize, period. It's mostly to prevent things from spreading out prior to laying down more serious AoE damage.

 

Jacob's Ladder: Name already taken Coronal Loop, the name is Coronal Loop now. Other than the name badly needing a change, I'd suggest swapping this out for a plasma take on snipes entirely. The set does NOT currently have a third single target power (it has two, arguably only ONE single target out of the 7 attacks even if one's more of a "hit two, every once in a while hit three instead" affair). That's even more AoE heavy than the warcrime that is Water (it has Four). How about an electron beam to weld the bastards? This could be your built in immobilize, and consumes charge (if you have any) for a variable level of Melt Armor?

 

The set could probably use a snipe. It is really short on single-target, and having an Immob/Melt Armor effect with charge sounds fitting.

 

Tritium Blast: Rather than short range (they've normalized ranges for the most part by i24 because those 40ft non-cones were a chore to use) make it a small radius. Another semi-single-target, a high damage but small AoE (like radius 8 or 10 with a 6 target cap), a bit expensive for non-blasters (as we have a Sustain) to use as a single target power but otherwise becomes your T3 equivalent and a second pseudo-AoE-pseudo-single power a-la Piercing. Plasma Arc and Tritium Blast; your two "I can use this either way I guess" powers.

 

Yeah, that makes sense. That would bring it in line with how a similar power, Explosive Blast, gets used.

 

Chain Reaction: I love the triple-tap format similar to a Burst of Speed that doesn't move you, but that's probably going to have to add up to  high damage if concentrated, and be basically your "I want things on their ass" variable control power. If you really want it to hurt, you'll concentrate or slot it for procs.

 

Yeah, that's exactly the idea. If you cluster it in one spot, the damage adds up to a mean attack, but the individual AoEs on their own aren't supposed to be terribly impressive separate.

 

Starburst: Well I guess there's enough targeted that this would be a Point-Blank, but you do know there's no longer an end-crash and recovery debuffs on nukes nowadays right? It can probably just be formulated as a short lived DoT field anchored to you, rather than something you actually toggle on or off. Like, 4 ticks that add up to maybe 325 blaster base (instead of 250.2 but not as high as Inferno) but isn't pure damage after all (if you're wise you were stealthed and their counter-alpha is debuffed).

 

Huh. I thought that was specific to Sentinels' nukes. I'll correct that.

 

Overall I love the concept, but it IS a bit too heavily skewed on AoE - thus my suggestions - as it would be a problem when soloing and coming up against Elites and Archvillains. Switching one of the AoEs to a 'hybrid' and another to a snipe would greatly alleviate the issues while still offering extreme levels of crowd focus.

 

Yeah, I did go a little too hard on AoE.

 

Hmmm, what do you use to make those icons?

 

I assembled icon pieces from ParagonWiki and colorized them in GIMP. If you look closely, you can see that despite my best efforts, the borders are a little rough.

[marcussmythe]

-DEF is always good to have on a power - it allows it to slot the Achilles Heel -RES Proc.

[Novacat]

As so many of these attacks are AoEs, you can just slot Annihilation's -Res instead.

[Steampunkette]

Honestly... I'd like to see a blast set built around having as much AoE as Titan Weapons does... But built for narrower high-damage AoE. Or lower target count AoE.

 

And I think a Plasma Projection set might be a great place to do it!

 

What if we added a small "Splash" to 2-3 nearby enemies for all of the powers as it's secondary effect, rather than debuffing the enemy? Even the AoEs would get this splash around each target hit (But very small splashing).

 

You wouldn't be adding increasing damage to your team size, but you would be adding damage overall. It would be the master of AoE by a mile, but in ST fights it would hit with a lower overall damage output.

 

Gives them a definite niche!

[Leogunner]

FYI, I stole your format for a post of mine  ;D

 

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,6042.msg49089.html#msg49089

 

As for my criticisms of the set, I always find it difficult to gauge Blast sets because their primary customer is the Blaster and they tend to need effects built in to help them survive.  But it's kind of related to the damage typings paired in the set as well, usually having the more resisted types having more utility...but then you get sets like Beam Rifle lol

 

That being said, I'd probably suggest the damage be primarily Fire damage (not enough sets that utilize the damage type, along with cold) with a chance of Energy DoT.  I suppose it could be reversed too.  But the pairing is pretty exotic and likely more effective than Psi could ever manage.

 

For the mechanic, I'd see it being quite complex to assemble.  I believe the Savage Melee set was suppose to have something similar but ultimately much of the added bonuses fell through (that is, the attacks were suppose to have building effects depending on how much blood frenzy you have but it's either "max stacks" or "what stacks?" and many of the non-consumer skills were scaled back in their effects too).  Could have been time constraints though...anyway, I think resource mechanics can get a bit complex.  I haven't played Water Blast yet so maybe that is the example I should be looking at.

 

I would also warn on using too many complexities within a single set.  I think the "set 3 patches" power is a cool take on that mechanic but you could probably replace the toggle nuke for a standard click that just tics damage around you (you could even move some while it ticking)...or just make it a standard nuke for animations sake.  You'd probably be able to make a better looking visual if it were a stationary boom.