Focused Feedback: Powerset - Electric Armor

[Lazarillo]

5 hours ago, BrandX said:

Not every set is going to get confuse, fear or whatever mez protection and it's been that way along time.

It does feel a little weird for Electric Armor, specifically, since its mez protection ability is all about shrouding the mind from outside influence.  Of the various sets, it feels like one of the ones that really should. Also, Terrorize protection really needs to be re-evaluated because unlike other typical holes, it's not one that can be compensated for with IOs/pool powers/other reasonable failsafes.

 

Both those points made, I'm still rather happy with the buffs it got.  But it'll still pretty much remain relegated to my "farm Malta in paper missions" characters.

Edited yesterday at 04:48 AM by Lazarillo

[BrandX]

10 minutes ago, Lazarillo said:

It does feel a little weird for Electric Armor, specifically, since its mez protection ability is all about shrouding the mind from outside influence.  Of the various sets, it feels like one of the ones that really should. Also, Terrorize protection really needs to be re-evaluated because unlike other typical holes, it's not one that can be compensated for with IOs/pool powers/other reasonable failsafes.

 

Both those points made, I'm still rather happy with the buffs it got.  But it'll still pretty much remain relegated to my "farm Malta in paper missions" characters.

 

Don't get me wrong.  I understand the desire for some of those other resists 🙂

Ooooh...if they're in the new Surge?

[Troo]

11 minutes ago, BrandX said:

 

Is the t9 mandatory?  We made do without it all this time and the set has only gotten buffed here.

 

Some T9s are getting better and more folks might want to pick a T9 but only have room in their build for 8 of 9, or maybe even 7 of 9 of the powers.

 

I can't see taking less than 9 powers in this set. There's a confuse hole and only a couple powers help fill it. It can start to pigeon hole builds.

 

I like these changes, my only comment is I got confused a lot when I tried them out.

 

 

[BrandX]

12 minutes ago, Troo said:

 

Some T9s are getting better and more folks might want to pick a T9 but only have room in their build for 8 of 9, or maybe even 7 of 9 of the powers.

 

I can't see taking less than 9 powers in this set. There's a confuse hole and only a couple powers help fill it. It can start to pigeon hole builds.

 

I like these changes, my only comment is I got confused a lot when I tried them out.

 

 

 

I get that.  I've played multiple of the sets with no Fear or Confuse resist...so I get it.

[euNoir]

Oh, fuck. I hate forums. I just reported a post instead of replying to it. *sigh* I'm going to just post here instead.

 

It would seem that I disagree fundamentally with almost everyone else here, which is interesting. I love Power Surge as it is. In fact, I forwent pushing my resists past a certain base and created my build entirely around using my T9. The only reason I play this set is so I can run around as a supercharged electric cloud; it's the most fun. Now my build is rather specific and took some work to get right, and I can also see why people don't want to use the power, but I'm not happy with the half-and-half nature of these changes.

 

I have some questions for the devs:
1) How does a 30 second regen buff provide sustainability for you? That's barely long enough to matter and it's still followed by the crash, which is still 15s. That's half as long as the buff, and the crash is worse than the buff by a significant degree. This is very much buttering burnt toast. It's still going to taste burnt. With these changes, I would expect the crash to be removed entirely. The crash serves to provide a cost for the extreme duration and extreme resistance buffs that the power has in it's current form; your new version has none of those things, so this crash is just punishment. I struggle to see how you can justify keeping it in.

2) As BrandX has already pointed out, the community have gotten along with this power as is for this long, why change it in this fashion? I can understand a complete rework given the general perception of the power, but this is a band aid on a severed limb, so it feels like you're not really addressing their issues.
3) If you must keep this change, could you not have an alternative version of Power Surge like you're doing with Dark Armour's PBAoE heal and keep this existing version for those who have it in their builds? I'm not going to redo my build if this change goes through. I'm going to trash the character. As a sometime player who's still rather new to Homecoming (although I played extensively on Live) and who has multiple characters I'm trying to build, the time and cost of redoing half my build for uncertain gains is not going to be worth it.

 

Finally, aside from the espoused sustainability (which the existing T9 provides by the way) what is your intended purpose with your proposed changes for the set? Taking all power changes into account, it seems like you're just bringing this more in line with other sets, which I would argue strips much of it's uniqueness. In light of it being just like other sets why would I pick this over those sets?  Or why would I stick with any of those over the better Tanker powersets? Uniqueness and variation, and the subsequent opportunity for different playstyles is what attracts people to new things. Otherwise, we'd all be playing the strongest Tanker sets in the game, because they inarguably exist. This is not one of them, and you're not making it one, so why would anyone play this new version of the set except people who aren't using the T9 and will still benefit from the other minor buffs. they'd just be swapping one pain point for another. I'm going to predict that anyone not using the T9 now isn't actually going to adopt this new one long-term, unless you do more with it. They might try it, but they'll soon realise it doesn't really give them what they want and they'll go back to what they're used to, which is a no-T9 build. In my opinion, these changes are extremely lacklustre.

[Player-1]

On 5/26/2025 at 7:58 AM, The Curator said:

 Power Surge

• Crash removed (EM Pulse remains).

• Recharge lowered to 350s.

• All effect durations lowered from 180s to 30s.

• Power now grants a +400% regen buff.

• Resistances lowered.

 

Hello @euNoir,

 

The crash has been removed from Power Surge along with the changes to recharge and uptime. If in your testing you are seeing there is still a crash, can you please confirm which archetype it is on?

 

[euNoir]

Aiii, I must have been very tired when I checked that, sorry. I was also a bit emotional, and that's rare enough that I sometimes can't regulate and make mistakes like forgetting which server I'm on. Ignore that part of the post then, please.

 

My mistake in this regard means I'm less concerned overall about the power's state, but I still won't run it in this new form. Allow me to express the greater issue for me (below); and please forgive me if some of my frustration bleeds through.

 

___________________________

 

Even without the crash here, the power isn't exciting me nor does it feel worth the investment. The resists are no longer valuable, since they're so small and so brief. and you have to wait a full 3 mins (2 min 58s with 3x50 IOs) for them to crop up. I can do better with Tough and some sets, except for Toxic, but it's better to learn how to compensate for the lack of Toxic than to rely on the tiny period of goodness you have from this power.

 

This is how this change plays out for me on my current build:

- I drop Power Surge

- I now have to add Tough; I cannot express how unenthused I am with this. It's not like I've never done that before. I guess I'll be adding Weave too; yay

- I can probably slot some Neg Res in there to bring that up (and that's a questionable use of build resources overall), but Toxic is out of the question; it will stay around where it is. This *was* my only Toxic resist Tanker but oh well.

- Scratch Burnout, won't be needing that anymore. Might as well remove the whole pool now. No hasten is kind of nice, but I've avoided that on other Tankers so having it on this one wasn't really an issue for me. I was enjoying SS on this toon but now I have to look at other Pools to compensate for Power Surge being dropped.

- No point in Adrenal Booster; I rather enjoyed playing with that since I've never done that on a Tanker before, but I guess that's just a fond memory now.

- No more Living Electricity goodness

 

TLDR; One with the Shield is point for point a better version of this new Power Surge. Wait... I've just realised that my Elec is now a worse version of my Dark Tanker except in Energy resist and Recovery, except that I don't need all that Recovery on the Elec - even with EM secondary. Even after I add some toggles, I'll have so much Recovery, it's practically a slap in the face.

Edited 8 hours ago by euNoir
More clarity and additional thoughts

[Auroxis]

I do think the old power surge had a some niche usage with cycling its uptime with Rune of Protection or Melee Hybrid. And some players may be disappointed that it's no longer an option.

 

Ideally you could have a branching choice between old power surge (maybe without the crash) and new power surge (maybe as a toggle so players can use it as a reliable sapping tool), but seeing as most players like the new power surge, this is what we'll have to settle with for now.

[Heatstroke]

4 hours ago, Auroxis said:

I do think the old power surge had a some niche usage with cycling its uptime with Rune of Protection or Melee Hybrid. And some players may be disappointed that it's no longer an option.

 

Ideally you could have a branching choice between old power surge (maybe without the crash) and new power surge (maybe as a toggle so players can use it as a reliable sapping tool), but seeing as most players like the new power surge, this is what we'll have to settle with for now.

 

 

Again pushing for TWO mutually exclusive versions of this power like you have alternates for others, Some of us like Power Surge the way it is and have build characters around it. dont force those people to make a change they dont want to make.. Keep the newer power.. Rename it.. for those that want that version. 

[Cheli]

"Every set we change significantly should have a branching path that lets you pick the old one" is probably a slope the devs aren't really wanting to slip down. If we're doing that, when are we getting a branching path that adds old Rage back to the game?