Poison Blast Concept

[Varkarrus]

See the full write-up here

 

A heavily DoT based ranged set. Apply many long-lasting toxic DoTs to enemies, and weaken their offensive capabilities. Also includes a few acid-based attacks to keep Poison Blasters effective against robots and other enemies with toxic resistance.

 

Poison Spit

 

Fires a simple blast of poison at a foe that deals moderate damage over 4 seconds. This poison is very gunky and gross, getting into places where it shouldn’t, making it effective even against foes that lack biological functions. As such, it bypasses a portion of toxic resistance.

 

Side note: All DoTs in this powerset stack, somewhat. I.E, if you apply Poison Spit to a target, then do so again before the first one expires, no damage will be wasted.

 

Venom Spray

 

Fires a blast of poison that splashes on impact, affecting the foe and nearby targets. This deals more damage than Poison Spit, but spread out over a longer period of time. This ability also applies a debuff to a target’s damage and movement speed for a longer duration, and this debuff can stack up to 3 times if you repeatedly use this ability.

 

Acid Splash

 

You fire a projectile that splashes on contact with the primary target, affecting them as well as enemies in a cone behind them with a fast acting corrosive fluid. This acid is extremely potent, bypassing a significant amount of toxic resistance, as well as applying a debuff that lowers their toxic resistance.

 

Paralytic Agent

 

You shoot a specialized poison at a target that numbs their muscles and leaves them unable to act. It deals minor damage over time, but immobilizes them, preventing them from acting. Even if a foe is strong enough to resist the immobilization, the numbing effect of the poison makes it harder for them to move effectively, reducing their accuracy and evasion.

 

When used by a Sentinel, this ability deals high damage instead. When used by a Bastion, this ability has a small AoE.

 

Corrosive Mist (sentinel only)

 

You release a mist that surrounds you, damaging opponents and protecting you from harm. Much like your Acid Splash, this is a corrosive agent that bypasses a large portion of toxic resistance, and debuffs the target’s toxic resistance. It also increases your defense against melee attacks.

 

This ability is toggled, but has a somewhat high endurance cost, a moderate recharge time, and will turn off on its own after 30 seconds.

 

Aim

 

Greatly increases the chance to hit of your attacks for a few seconds. Slightly increases damage.

 

Euthanize (snipe equivalent)

 

A focused blast in the form of a toxic dart that can travel great distances with high Accuracy. This is a sniper attack, and is best fired from a distance, as it can be interrupted. Euthanize deals more damage than other sniper attacks, but spread out over a whopping 12 seconds.

 

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Lethal Dose

 

You blast an incredibly deadly poison at enemies in a wider area, dealing high damage, some of which is applied instantly, with the rest applied as a long lasting DoT. A straightforward damage move.

 

 

Contagion

 

This toxin is contagious, like a disease, spreading from target to target. First, a single carrier is infected, and they take very high damage over time over a very lengthy period. Furthermore, they spread the toxin to their own nearby allies as long as the debuff remains, causing them to similarly take damage. The disease can continue to spread from any vector, but each target can only be infected once per contagion, and there is a maximum number of targets that can be infected on a single use.

 

Finally, a reason to use knockback.

 

Noxious Infection (Bastion only)

 

Similar to the Mastermind power Noxious Gas, you can infect a single enemy with a poisonous gas. The infected enemy and all nearby enemies will be overcome with the Noxious Infection. Their Defense, chance to hit, Damage, and Damage resistance will all be reduced. Additionally, there is a chance that any affected humanoid enemy will become violently ill. Even the mightiest foe will stop dead in their tracks, and left helpless as they empty the contents of their stomach.

 

 

Toxic Wasteland

 

Favoring quantity over quality, you unleash a burst of poison that coats a large area, choking the life of everything in it. This creates a patch of ground that poisons foes standing in it. The longer they stand in it, the more severe the poison becomes, and even when they leave the area, the effects of the poison will persist for a decent amount of time. In addition, foes standing in the poison have their movement speed reduced, and have a small chance each second to be immobilized, stuck in the thick sludge.

[Novacat]

If I can make a few suggestions:

1) Short/Long/Verylong or "Weak/Strong/High/Moderate/Extreme"(the damage ones) should probably just be dumped. There's plenty of cases where "moderate" damage is higher than "high" because those descriptions were EITHER purposefully misleading when they were first written up OR simply ignored as beta balances went on leading to powers unrelated to their descripts. As such, those words mean nothing, best to just note a rough idea of damage at multiplier 1 and level 50, recharge time in seconds and range/radius in feet.

 

2) There is unfortunately no resistance debuff set category.

3) Sniper attacks also qualify for single target ranged at a minimum.

4) infection's not a reason to use knockback, in fact that's a risk of separating things away from each-other. What you want is someone else that uses taunt, rather.

 

I do like the thought of 2 snipes (one aoe), but overall blast sets are generally identical for all ATs save for snipers getting swapped in Sentinels, and low/no-damage single target holds becoming tier 3 blasts with a hold in them as well.  This also means there's no reason to mark down everyone's levels - this is something that's made automatic by the power's location in the set and whether it's being equipped as a primary or secondary.

[Zepp]

I like it, although I think Corrosive Mist should either be a toggle (no timer) or a click, but not the sort of middle ground you are suggesting. I would also suggest replacing Aim with something similar to Envenomed Blades that stacks an additional Toxic DoT on the target.

[Trickshooter]

First, just wanted to say that all DoTs stack already. I wasn't sure if that was intended to be a balance point for this set over others.

 

Second, I really like the idea of a Toxic damage set, and I like that you considered a way to deal with the fact that there are some things in the game with significant resistance to it. However, I'm not sure the game is in a state where adding a 100% Toxic Damage set is workable.

 

Like I said, I like that you thought creatively about a way to deal with toxic resistance. But when you say something bypasses Toxic Resistance, what you're basically describing is unresistable damage, which could break a few things in PvE, like objects intended to be indestructible or even enemies intended to be significantly challenging like Hamidon or Lord Recluse.

 

I also think this set could be problematic in PvP, as most sets only have minimal Toxic Resistance to begin with, and some of them in powers where players don't generally slot for resistance (like click heals). And even though Toxic Defense was eventually created in the game, no player power uses it.

 

Also, there have been other sets that propose high damage, but mostly DoT, and I always feel a little unsure about them. People typically end up complaining that DoTs (especially lengthy ones) end up being "wasted" on fast moving teams.

 

It's your set, so ignore this if you're happy with it, but I would suggest maybe making the powers do around half of their damage as upfront Toxic damage, half as Fire DoT (this being the acid's burning effect), and then have most of the powers cause either a smaller -Res(Toxic, Fire) or a larger -Res(Toxic).

[Novacat]

Damage variance could be achieved through a bit of playing with the 'states' of the toxins/acids. Dealing maybe half up-front and the rest over 3-6 seconds depending would probably be a good idea though, yeah.

 

-Toxic Wasteland could build up a few ticks then explode with fire damage.

 

-Venom sprays frozen crystals, dealing mostly Cold and Lethal as they shatter on impact, leaving the strong toxic DoT in victims as they thaw.

 

-Acid Splash likely bowls its initial target over as pops like a balloon when kicked at breakneck speed, splorching vitriolic supercooled sludge across those behind him.

 

-Euthanize is like those silly 40k 'Needle' weapons, where a thin beam (energy damage) acts as a channel for the lance of poisonous material that follows. Rather than front or back-loaded it's mid-loaded: Light damage on the spot, a heavy hit and then the DoT to complete the whole process.

[Varkarrus]

Ooh, fire sounds like a good idea for the acid powers. I was previously considering smashing, and even energy, but fire sounds the most fitting.

 

And yes, the fact that its damage is in DoT format means it'll be slower than other blaster sets. Its strength is in softening large groups with high overall AoE damage and debuffs