No more "Chance to Knocback"

[Steampunkette]

Simple suggestion: Remove the CHANCE to knockback in powersets that give a chance. Make it always knockback.

 

Don't change the damage of those powersets, mind you. Or the Endurance Costs or the Recharge Time of those powers. Just make them -always- knockback instead of having a 30-80% chance, depending on the power.

 

It'd be a slight survival increase for the powersets that do use KB, but thanks to group-gathering efficiency of teaming, it'll slow down the process slightly by reducing the amount of team-damage done in the extra half second of getting back into range.

 

But it will also mean that the entire enemy spawn (or at least all targets hit) gets bounced across the room by an Energy Sweep, so at least the efficiency-lovers will have their groups still packed tight, just 5-10ft further down the hall, or against the wall in a tangle jumble of limbs.

 

There. I fixed Knockback!

[DSorrow]

If it's a single target ability and not melee, I'm fine with chance for KB. If it's a melee attack, chance of KB is annoying most of the time. If it's an AoE, chance of KB is downright disruptive.

 

+1 for removing chance of KB from AoEs, at least.

[Redlynne]

The ... inconsistency ... of KB/KD due to chance to KB/KD is just ... infuriating ... since there's absolutely NOTHING YOU CAN DO as a Player to influence that chance to proc.  It's baked into the power at a "level" that is beyond the influence of what you can do as a Player to affect how your power(s) "work."

[Galaxy Brain]

Hell, are there other powers that have significant "chance of" side effects that aren't crit?

 

+1

[Steampunkette]

19 minutes ago, Galaxy Brain said:

Hell, are there other powers that have significant "chance of" side effects that aren't crit?

 

+1

There are. But stunning or holding a target isn't controversial. Knocback is. There's also be no DPS loss from movement on a given Hold or Stun effect, so if we changed up the power we'd need to balance for survival to damage.

 

In this case I feel like it's edge enough to be a thing worth considering.

[Oneirohero]

I agree with this suggestion!

 

I found it weird that attacks/powers that supposedly have a KD/KB element have a chance when the damage part of the power connects so long as you meet the ToHit check. Knock with a chance is RNG with an RNG. Though with that said, without some kind of knockback cooldown (although one exists, it's not reliable), it could be possible to juggle targets endlessly and thus reduce the threat to trivial levels. I wouldn't be surprised if the chances were put there to prevent that kind of scenario.

 

Knocking Minions and Lts around is fair game since there's so many of them, if Bosses can resist powers with less than 1.0 magnitude knockback then this could be balanced to remove chances entirely. As a rule that many CC characters know, Bosses have Mag 3 protection against statuses to make sure double the normal applications of status effects are required to affect them. It should make sense that KD/KB powers should in fact have a base magnitude plus an additional magnitude that's chance based. Therefore Lts and below will always be knocked but Bosses only have a chance to be knocked.

 

So the teal-deer is: Lts and below don't have base knock protections, bosses have 1.0 knock protection, make all powers have a base magnitude less than 1.0 but with a chance for additional magnitude knock so it may affect Bosses occasionally.