Does anyone use range enhancements?

[Varkarrus]

I've never had a need for them. But, if no-one uses them, I thought of a small buff. They could increase the radius of cones and AoEa slightly: not by as big a percentage as they increase range, but enough so that it makes a slight impact. This wouldn't affect the target limit though... Or should it?

[Redlynne]

Range enhancements will already modify Cone "reach" but will not modify the arc (or "width" if you prefer) of the Cone.

 

Target AoEs will have the distance the AoE can be used increased by Range enhancements, but the size of the AoE at the destination point will not be modified.  So you can use the Target AoE "farther away" but it won't be "bigger" at that distance.

PBAoEs will not be modified by Range enhancements, since by definition the range away from caster is "zero" and the radius of the AoE will not be modified.  Therefore, PBAoEs do not accept Range enhancements.

 

In this context, Cone attacks will often benefit mightily from Range enhancement ... since a +50% increase in the "reach" of the Cone will result in an increase of +100% area held at risk (in 2D terms, it's higher in 3D volume increase terms).

 

 

Note how much WIDER the Cone is in the blue and purple rings compared to the green ring in this image.

Yeah ... THAT.

 

Now think in terms of the red to green layers being the unenhanced for Range and the blue and purple rings being the Range enhanced effect on Cones.

 

 

 

[Sura]

I use them on my Beam Rifle Sentinel.  They do make cones bigger, but not in degrees.  As you extend the range of a cone the area it's covering naturally gets larger. 

[Vanden]

I rarely ever slot for it myself, but the range Enhancement in the Intuition alpha slot is one of the reasons I like it so much.

[Varkarrus]

My suggestion is that if range enhancements are underpowered, then they should increase the arc of cones and the radius of targeted AoEs. But if a range enhancement increased the range by 20%, it should only increase the cone arc by 10%. Or something like that.

[ed_anger]

If for example you have Dark Blast with two cones, one longer than the other, putting a range in the shorter one will help even them out. And as was pointed out, extending the wider part of the cone allows for a lot more mobs to be targeted.

[Fedifensor]

I think the reason range isn’t added to most builds is because of two issues.

 

First, it’s often impractical to operate at extreme ranges.  Many maps make long-range fighting impossible (like those damn CoT caverns) except at a few specific spots.  Many characters need to be close enough to use PBAoEs on enemies or allies, such as the heals and buffs in many Defender / Controller / Mastermind / etc builds.  It’s a bad idea to stray too far from your teammates, and most teams have melee characters.

 

Second, there isn’t a whole lot of range in IOs, which are the main type of enhancement people use (especially once they hit level 50).  Take a look at how many Targeted AOE IOs have range enhancements - you can count them on one hand with fingers left.  If there were a few more sets with things like Accuracy/Damage/Range, people would be more inclined to slot range in their powers.

[Trickshooter]

I think the only reason they don't already is just because effects can't scale to match. I don't think that really matters to most people, and effect scales are already messed up by player size, but if I had to guess, that'd probably be the reason.

 

Interestingly, radius is already something programmed in the game as enhanceable. Technically, I think Range Enhancements in Cones enhance radius, since Cones are kinda like PBAoEs restricted to an arc. Radius Enhancements were planned, but never implemented, too. Their enhancement color would have been pink:

 

[Varkarrus]

Yes, I'm aware there'd be compounding effects here. If range enhancements don't need as big a buff on cone powers, the arc increase could be very small. Still, could increase the radius of AoE attacks by a larger amount. Heck, maybe single target attacks could get a larger bonus to range than normal. I know the enhancement diversification penalty is smaller on them already.

[DSorrow]

I only use them in some cone attacks. They're probably useful in PvP, too, but besides those two I can't think of any consistent use case where you wouldn't be better served by Acc/Dam/End/Rech enhancements. If they enhanced the radius of PBAoEs or AoEs, I'd probably slot some in most builds.