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(Reuploaded) PVDs for each AP, perchance?
thisiscraftaaa
Posts: 192 Arc User
Originally titled "A rambling overdesigned PVD for each Adventure Pack born of madness and farming perchance?" this thread was taken down by the automated spam filter "for approval" during my attempting to edit the initial post with information which more than doubled the size of said post. It's been two days and there's been no hide nor hair of it, despite asking around in-game and being told by more than one person that the automod takes around a day to approve a post.
As such, I'm reuploading here to ensure the idea- and anyone's thoughts on it, or their own suggestions- are still seen, with the request that if, some distant week from now, the original gets approved by the automod, this duplicate be wiped/taken down, the old be merged into this thread somehow, or something to deal with unwanted duplicates.
Thank you! Now, with that said, the original post...
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Darkspeed farming in Resistance has driven me to madness and I'd like to share a taste of that madness with all of you in the ridiculous daydreams burned into my brain by the boredom of waiting for the Resistance bomb-planting crew to take the five years necessary to put a stick of dynamite on a desk or something. So!
Adventure Packs are beloved but have pretty stale rewards overall; mostly just very old, very dated gold shiny costumes that everybody who's been playing for any length of time already have or have already had a chance to acquire. So, how about something new? It doesn't matter if it's common-enough-ish (that fat 1% drop rate) in the grand scheme of things like PVDs dropping from Alerts or ludicrously rare like another DUC or Brilliance, as long as there's something interesting there to justify returning, the likes of which only Resistance currently has in the form of Darkspeed (semi-invalidated by QWZ Oubliette) and the prison-segment costume unlocks (semi-invalidated by the SCR store making them easy to obtain) and ye olde Colossus set, which drops easily enough barring the head which even now is still easy to farm for in the end.
This is the best APs have to offer.
Whiteout has one costume transformation I've never seen anyone use.
Serpent Lantern has that hair that I unlocked a while back and don't even remember what it looks like outside of "dreads maybe???" for how... nothing it is.
Demonflame has the same Jack Fool drops that Jack Fool can drop elsewhere, such as in Alerts.
Aftershock has the Draconis Cape and Viper Collar, and while I don't know if they drop anywhere else, they still suffer from the same issue of "SCR store therefore greatly devalued since anyone impatient can just burn 18 or 19 days of Serials on one character to get it."
So, hear me out, why not throw in a fun, at least somewhat thematic new PVD for each of the APs? This is what I thought of while beating my head against the desk, and the following in particular:
Resistance: "Destroyer's Gauntlets" an Incinerate replacer. Alternatively, since there's a device already named "Dr. Destroyer's Gauntlets," these could be called "Destroyer's Radiating Gauntlets" instead.
"Salvaged from the epic battle between Doctor Destroyer and his Shadowy Other, these repaired gauntlets blast your foes with withering beams of radiation."
*100' range, self-root while using. Takes slightly more energy to use than Incinerate and has identical activate and maintain times.
*Only affected by the base power's ranks, not by any advantages.
*Deals [Incinerate] Particle Damage every 0.5 seconds.
*Increases this power's damage by 4% for every stack of Plasma Burn on your target.
*On full maintain, adds 8 seconds to the duration of all Plasma Burns and 16 seconds to the duration of Disintegrate and Burn Through on the target. These cannot go above their starting values. If there are no Plasma Burn stacks available, only 8 seconds are added to Disintegrate and Burn Through.
*On full maintain, consumes one stack of Plasma Burn and deals an additional tick of damage not buffed by remaining Plasma Burn stacks. If there are no Plasma Burn stacks to consume, this extra damage tick does not proc.
*Goes on a 90 sec cooldown if you do not own the Incinerate power.
The idea behind this one was, obviously, to show Incinerate some love, since Fire lags behind compared to other ranged sets, not having a good 100' attack power and being extremely heavy on self-roots on top of that. "Destroyer's Gauntlets" seemed like an easy shoe-in for that, by turning Incinerate into a heavier-damage, stationary version of Pulp Fiction Ray Gun, which, funny enough, also comes from something Destroyer-related. The downsides to this make it function similar to Soul Beam, albeit potentially reaching slightly higher damage: in exchange for that range, the power- like its fiery predecessor- remains a self-root-while-maintaining, and like it- and like Soul Beam especially- it needs other powers to initially apply everything for it; not just the defense debuff(s) but even Plasma Burns. Of course, once those are applied, it can also maintain them, though that just means it won't be doing full damage in quick mob fights, and against foes that frequently wipe debuffs, like Baron Cimetiere or Therakiel, frequent reapplication might be necessary. A shoe-in for Vindicator/Overseer or Guardian/Overseer making good use of Bad Sector for sure... again, much like Pulp Fiction Ray Gun. Editing on 7/10/2023 at the risk of being smote down by the auto-mod for daring to edit a large post: to add slash elaborate a tiny bit more, my thought behind the whole "Plasma Burn stack consuming" was that in exchange for being able to maintain both Particle-related damage debuffs once initially applied by other powers or devices, you'd also have to actively apply Plasma Burn stacks to maintain the full benefit, and that without them not only would Destroyer's Gauntlets do noticeably less damage, but you'd also have a lot less breathing space for the defense debuffs themselves. The whole "fire and forget" Bad Sector Overseer solution might work on stationary targets with some allowance for RNG, but for mobile targets, frequent re-placing of Bad Sector would be a (deserved) annoyance as this device would be a self-root-on-maintain. Otherwise, staying in close range using something like Cybernetic Tether with Radiate every two maintains would be a requirement, or potentially sacrificing your Ultimate slot to Meltdown (instead of something more suitable to a ranged DPS) which would still only get you any stacks of Plasma Burn at all part of the time.
Whiteout: "Roin'Esh Graft" a Burning Chi Fist replacer.
"A bodily graft made from fallen Roin'Esh lends caustic, seething venom to your every strike and weakens your foes to your consecutive blows."
*10' range, allows full mobility while using. Takes the same energy to use as Burning Chi Fist and has identical charge and activate times.
*Only affected by the base power's ranks, not by any advantages.
*Deals [Burning Chi Fist] Toxic Damage.
*Fully charging this power applies Noxious Poison to your primary target.
*This power has a 12%-25% chance (based on charge time) to apply Deadly Poison to the primary target.
*If your primary target is affected by Debilitating Poison, fully charging this power adds 5 seconds to the duration of all your stacks of Deadly Poison on the primary target.
*Goes on a 90 sec cooldown if you do not own the Burning Chi Fist power.
This one was absolutely born of the bait-and-switch that was Electric Vengeance. It had no cooldown up until it hit Live (where as of the time of posting, apparently not a single one has dropped, but that issue is neither here nor there.) On Live, that makes it a watered-down Reaper's Embrace, and changes nothing except that people chasing the maximum theoretical parse are now swapping Toxic Nanites for Ball Lightning, or something similar, to alternate BCF and EV strikes, whereas before, even up to less than an hour before, it was a viable alternative to BCF on its own for a build, which made it incredibly interesting! Now, yes, yes, I get it; this is literally just a toxic damage BCF instead. But at least it's something. It sacrifices the slightly higher damage of Ghostly Strikes for dealing one singular damage type, and of one of the types sorely neglected for melee at that (especially since the only main source of it; Devour Essence, was brutally nerfed into the floor.) Chi Flame, in turn, is sacrificed for a ready applier of Noxious Poison that DOESN'T require sacrificing an ult slot or intentionally underranking Infernal Supernatural's main single-target power just to achieve, as well as the potential to build up Deadly Poison over time but still requiring something else if quick application is a necessity, and requiring Debilitating Poison to make that happen at all. Sure, it's BCF under a different skin, but I think all of the three toxic-damage melee players left out there who haven't thrown themselves on their own swords in tragedy and mourning yet would celebrate it, and it'd bring melee toxic tanks back into the limelight to some degree or another too.
Serpent Lantern: "Serpent's Hex" a Fire Snake replacer.
"This spell claimed from a Serpent Mage harries your foes, disrupting their movements and distracting them, leaving them wide open to your more devastating attacks."
*100' range, allows full mobility while using. Takes moderately more energy to use than baseline Fire Snake and has an identical activate time. Cooldown time is halved compared to base Fire Snake.
*Only affected by the base power's ranks, not by any advantages.
*Sends a Mystic Serpent after your foes for 16 sec.
*The Mystic Serpent deals half of [Fire Snake]'s damage in Magic Damage every 1 sec to foes within 10ft.
*Foes within 20ft have their movement speed reduced by 30%/40%/50% and deal 8%/10%/12% less damage based on rank. (This scales up further with Presence, similar to Sigils of Ebon Weakness.)
*When the Mystic Serpent expires, it deals a burst of Magic Damage in a 15ft sphere around it (comparable to- if a little weaker than- Concussion Grenade) and applies Jinxed to all targets hit.
*Goes on a 90 sec cooldown if you do not own the Fire Snake power.
So! This one was an interesting one. Initially, I'd considered a Hydra PVD of some sort, but wanted to stick to the theme of PVDs only existing for base/vanilla powers, not ones that had to be unlocked through other means, whether SCR or Lockboxes or otherwise. With that in mind, and with the VIPER theme of Serpent Lantern, Fire Snake felt like an easy pick. From there, my initial thought was "oh yeah, just make it reverse-repel like U-MD Ghosthunter Phase Rifle," but when I thought on it, that just... wasn't interesting, or noteworthy enough to make it worth picking over base Fire Snake, which ITSELF is either a must-take for Engulfing Flames for a fire DPS, or a never-take because you already have Meteor Blaze to apply Engulfing Flames and Fire Strike to refresh it. But then I thought on it and started writing, and came to the conclusion that; if this is magic damage, why not make it also play into the strength of the Sorcery set? The result was: it deals even less damage than Fire Snake does (very minimal) but bursts at the end like a much weaker Ball Lightning. While it lasts the same time, its cooldown is faster to ensure constant up-time if you spam it, and finally, the most important effect: it acts like a smaller, weaker but slowly mobile Sigil of Ebon Weakness that can't be killed by enemy mobs. A prime pick for healers wanting to buy extra survivability without resorting to... current meta methods of not dying instantly when fifty mobs spawn on top of them, as is the Therakiel's Temple way, and also for DPSes and tanks willing to sacrifice a little DPS and a little aggro potential for some team support. It also has obvious uses for Pre-heavy solo builds buying more survivability in ways that aren't just "lol slap hybrid-role AoRP on it" or "just self-heal harder and stack some Con." More endgame-viable build-diversity that isn't intentionally sandbagging for the sake of Muh Theme, please!
Demonflame: "Qliphoth-Tainted Plasma Rifle" a Pulse Beam Rifle replacer.
"This rifle claimed from a fallen UNTIL soldier has been twisted by the dark, primordial forces of Qliphoth, barely recognizable as an once-earthly weapon; now every shot burns away at body and soul alike."
*100' range, allows full mobility while using. Takes a LOT more energy than Pulse Beam Rifle to use. Has an identical activate time but 5sec maintain time.
*Only affected by the base power's ranks, not by any advantages.
*Deals damage identical to Pulse Beam Rifle's (including the extremely low starting damage and extremely high ending damage based on pulse) every 0.5 seconds, evenly split between Particle Damage and Dimensional Damage. Critical Chance and Critical Severity does NOT increase with each tick.
*The Particle Damage of this power increases up to 50% based on how high your energy is, starting at 25% and ending at 75%.
*The Dimensional Damage of this power increases up to 50% based on how low your health is, starting at 75% and ending at 25%.
*If the target is affected by Devoid, the final tick will deal a moderate burst of Dimensional Damage (comparable to a max pulse of PBR, then modified by how low your health is) in a 25' sphere around the main target, knocking nearby secondary targets in.
*If the target is affected by Disintegrate or Burn Through, the final tick will deal a moderate burst of Particle Damage (comparable to a max pulse of PBR, then modified by how high your energy is) in a 25' sphere around the main target, knocking nearby secondary targets out/away.
*If the target is affected by both Devoid AND Disintegrate or Burn Through, the final tick will deal a large burst of mixed Dimensional Damage and Particle Damage (comparable to a max pulse of PBR x1.5, each half modified by health and energy respectively) in a 25' sphere around the main target, randomly knocking both the primary target and nearby secondary targets either up or down and snaring them. If any target, whether primary or secondary, is immune to knocks, applies Overpower instead.
*Goes on a 90 sec cooldown if you do not own the Pulse Beam Rifle power.
So, let me remind you of something. Munitions by far has the most PVDs available of any powerset in the game, currently: U-MD Ghosthunter Phase Rifle for Submachinegun Burst, Qularr Toxic Rifle (editing at 7/7/2023 again to add/correct at the risk of getting automodded for daring to edit a large post again: and Frost Ice Rifle, making this currently the only power with two PVDs for it) for Assault Rifle, Pulp Fiction Ray Gun for Two Gun Mojo, and Laser Shotgun for Shotgun Blast. If you squint, you could potentially count Lightning Bolter for Lightning Arc, which is Electric but can the skin of your Assault Rifle, but as it's not truly Munitions I'm not counting it for this. Now, let me remind you of something else. Gadgeteering is a set with bad DPS. Not the worst; that goes to Celestial or Earth, but baseline Assault Rifle or 2GM, let alone their PVDs, blow everything in Gadgeteering out of the water, and most other sets have everything they need to do the same. Now, I'm a diehard Pulse Beam Rifle simp, so I figured this'd be the perfect spot to squeeze in what could be Gadgeteering's first PVD. The critical chance and severity bonus that PBR scales up with over the course of each maintain, the only thing keeping it capable of outdamaging Blasts, (Ice Blast still obliterates it for obvious reasons,) is sacrificed for a raw damage increase held back slightly by dealing split damage types that usually never do anything together (particle and dimensional.) Said raw damage increase, of course, comes in the forms of what I described: sticking to the gimmick that PBR loves wild scaling, more energy and less health equals more particle and more dimensional damage, respectively, playing into "broken/overcharged tech" and "Qliphoth = bad and death etcetera" themes. Normally, NORMALLY, you'd only ever be seeing reliable use of the particle side of that buff, essentially a 25% true increase over PBR's base damage (in exchange for no ramping crit buffs) but the lower health thing seemed nice, both as an eleventh hour sort of effect (since if your health is at or below 25%, you're in a bad spot regardless, or else a healer's about to pick you up.) And then, finally, the AoE component as I described it, requiring defense debuffs on the target to proc, is both for a slight extra boost of damage, a little fun chaos factor in mixing in some Shadow Scheme in with Pulse Beam Rifle, and adding some team synergy, since if you have a Qliphoth-Tainted Plasma Rifle and a Qularr Toxic Rifle working together in the same group, the latter will still out-damage the former by far, even without having to stop and block (as this would still suffer from the issue of being backloaded, which very bad in any situation where you have to block frequently, and is half of what holds back PBR in the first place.) In turn, this device isn't going to do good AoE damage; if you're looking for a dedicated AoE rupture then Storm Summoner and Storm Calling still blow it out of the water, as will Electric Vengeance once that starts dropping. The benefit is more making PBR's- or rather, QTPR's- damage more consistent, the backloading less punishing (it's highly punishing for no good reason on base PBR) while giving it the sort of team utility that you'd imagine PBR's Finite Improbability Drive would provide when it really doesn't (and when casual click-powers like Magic Cauldron do that better than PBR FID does anyways.)
Aftershock: "Echo of the Kings" an Eye Beam replacer.
"Your bravery in Qliphoth twice over and your triumph over the Avatars of the Kings has left your very essence broken and seared, and your very gaze carries traces of those same dark powers which devoured worlds."
*100' range, 20' sphere, allows full mobility while using. Takes a LOT more energy than Eye Beam to use. Is a maintain rather than a toggle! Identical activate and maintain time otherwise.
*Only affected by the base power's ranks, not by any advantages.
*Deals MUCH more damage than Eye Beam, to make up for not having two other PA slots backing it up. This damage is Dimensional Damage.
*Damage done to the primary target is 100%. Damage done to secondary targets scales down depending on distance: 80% at 5ft or closer to the primary target, 60% at 6ft to 10ft, 40% at 10ft to 15ft, and 20% at 15ft to 20ft.
*Deals self-damage on use, approximately 30 points per tick per enemy hit; this damage bypasses all defenses. Deals an additional 50 points or so of self-damage per tick if the primary target is affected by Devoid.
*Provides +100% Defense against Healing while being maintained. (Or rather, incoming healing is halved while this power is in use.)
*If the primary target is affected by Devoid, has a 50% chance to apply Chill to the primary target per tick, and a 40%/30%/20%/10% chance to apply Chill to secondary targets per tick based on distance from the primary target. Guaranteed application to the primary target on the final tick.
*Additionally, if the primary target is affected by Devoid, has a 50% chance to apply Clinging Flames to the primary target per tick, and a 40%/30%/20%/10% chance to apply Clinging Flames to secondary targets per tick based on distance from the primary target. Guaranteed application to the primary target on the final tick.
*Goes on a 90 sec cooldown if you do not own the Eye Beam power.
This one. This one, this one, this one... this is the one where I let myself get carried away. By the numbers, the other PVDs I've described here would be strong in some situations and weak in others, sure. They'd have a place to fit in, and the description given for them is really misleading in how strong you'd THINK they are. But THIS one. This one was where I decided to have fun with things. Everybody's been wanting an Eye Beam power that isn't just one third of PA for ages. I've been wanting it for ages too. What resulted was the thought "what if the U-MD Ghosthunter Phase Rifle was disgustingly cracked rather than just a solid munitions PVD?" Taking that and mixing it with the Shadow-Embrace-to-Shadow-Shred glow-up resulted in this. The "Echo of the Kings" PVD. A mobile, 100'-range 20'-sphere, taking a page out of the Ghost Gun's book both by changing what shape of AoE it is entirely, and by doing more or less damage to secondary targets depending on how far away they are from the primary target. However, unlike the Ghost Gun, the Echo of the Kings has no way of directly grouping targets together; it needs other powers- or allies- to do that for it. The trade-off for this is, requiring Devoid present, which means meta Shattering-Rain-in-devices DPSes wouldn't be able to casually throw it at mob crowds unlike weaker/non-meta Shadow-Blast-to-apply DPSes, the application of Clinging Flames to the primary (and potentially secondary, depending on RNG) targets for a slight extra bit of flavor, as well the identical application and chance-application of Chill stacks for the sake of harassing enemy mobs. This also leads to light potential fire synergy, and much stronger ice synergy. Shatter and Rimefire Burst users in particular would love this, as would Ice Sheath users, for obvious reasons. The trade-off for all this is that not only would Echo of the Kings take an enormous amount of energy to use, comparable to U-MD Ghosthunter Phase Rifle at the very least, it would also play into the same "Qliphoth = innately bad and everything dies" theme that Qliphoth-Tainted Plasma Rifle was dabbling with, but much moreso, not by doing more dimensional damage on lower health but by actively- slowly- draining your health and weakening incoming healing significantly while maintaining it. Another layer of challenge for such a potentially-strong device, meaning that especially in more threatening content, usage of it would need to be tactical, or you'd have to sacrifice some DPS for extra self-healing or other survivability tools to make safe use of it. Which would serve also to make it feel even stronger without just giving it bigger damage numbers. What a doozy to close out on.
Needless to say, I really had nothing better to do. And another twenty or so attempts down before getting sidetracked with this and I still haven't gotten the Darkspeed I'm after. But I did manage to complete this wall of spaghetti text to post here, so something came of it at least. Though whether that something was good is more a matter of opinion. Does anyone else have any thoughts of their own for potential AP PVDs? Thoughts on how one or another of these is disgustingly overpowered? (Definitely Echo of the Kings?) Or the obligatory "Burning Chi Fist/PA still outdamages all of these no diff?" I did write these under the assumption that they'd be witheringly rare, mind you.
... I am incredibly bored and have nothing better to do than make up neat-sounding PVDs that you could center an entire build around. (Or make god-forsaken TT trash mobs suffer with. Please, I beg of you. Give me Serpent's Hex if nothing else.)
(Editing here and there to clarify things I forgot to put down. Updated 7/5/2023 with the thought process behind each PVD.)
As such, I'm reuploading here to ensure the idea- and anyone's thoughts on it, or their own suggestions- are still seen, with the request that if, some distant week from now, the original gets approved by the automod, this duplicate be wiped/taken down, the old be merged into this thread somehow, or something to deal with unwanted duplicates.
Thank you! Now, with that said, the original post...
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Darkspeed farming in Resistance has driven me to madness and I'd like to share a taste of that madness with all of you in the ridiculous daydreams burned into my brain by the boredom of waiting for the Resistance bomb-planting crew to take the five years necessary to put a stick of dynamite on a desk or something. So!
Adventure Packs are beloved but have pretty stale rewards overall; mostly just very old, very dated gold shiny costumes that everybody who's been playing for any length of time already have or have already had a chance to acquire. So, how about something new? It doesn't matter if it's common-enough-ish (that fat 1% drop rate) in the grand scheme of things like PVDs dropping from Alerts or ludicrously rare like another DUC or Brilliance, as long as there's something interesting there to justify returning, the likes of which only Resistance currently has in the form of Darkspeed (semi-invalidated by QWZ Oubliette) and the prison-segment costume unlocks (semi-invalidated by the SCR store making them easy to obtain) and ye olde Colossus set, which drops easily enough barring the head which even now is still easy to farm for in the end.
This is the best APs have to offer.
Whiteout has one costume transformation I've never seen anyone use.
Serpent Lantern has that hair that I unlocked a while back and don't even remember what it looks like outside of "dreads maybe???" for how... nothing it is.
Demonflame has the same Jack Fool drops that Jack Fool can drop elsewhere, such as in Alerts.
Aftershock has the Draconis Cape and Viper Collar, and while I don't know if they drop anywhere else, they still suffer from the same issue of "SCR store therefore greatly devalued since anyone impatient can just burn 18 or 19 days of Serials on one character to get it."
So, hear me out, why not throw in a fun, at least somewhat thematic new PVD for each of the APs? This is what I thought of while beating my head against the desk, and the following in particular:
Resistance: "Destroyer's Gauntlets" an Incinerate replacer. Alternatively, since there's a device already named "Dr. Destroyer's Gauntlets," these could be called "Destroyer's Radiating Gauntlets" instead.
"Salvaged from the epic battle between Doctor Destroyer and his Shadowy Other, these repaired gauntlets blast your foes with withering beams of radiation."
*100' range, self-root while using. Takes slightly more energy to use than Incinerate and has identical activate and maintain times.
*Only affected by the base power's ranks, not by any advantages.
*Deals [Incinerate] Particle Damage every 0.5 seconds.
*Increases this power's damage by 4% for every stack of Plasma Burn on your target.
*On full maintain, adds 8 seconds to the duration of all Plasma Burns and 16 seconds to the duration of Disintegrate and Burn Through on the target. These cannot go above their starting values. If there are no Plasma Burn stacks available, only 8 seconds are added to Disintegrate and Burn Through.
*On full maintain, consumes one stack of Plasma Burn and deals an additional tick of damage not buffed by remaining Plasma Burn stacks. If there are no Plasma Burn stacks to consume, this extra damage tick does not proc.
*Goes on a 90 sec cooldown if you do not own the Incinerate power.
The idea behind this one was, obviously, to show Incinerate some love, since Fire lags behind compared to other ranged sets, not having a good 100' attack power and being extremely heavy on self-roots on top of that. "Destroyer's Gauntlets" seemed like an easy shoe-in for that, by turning Incinerate into a heavier-damage, stationary version of Pulp Fiction Ray Gun, which, funny enough, also comes from something Destroyer-related. The downsides to this make it function similar to Soul Beam, albeit potentially reaching slightly higher damage: in exchange for that range, the power- like its fiery predecessor- remains a self-root-while-maintaining, and like it- and like Soul Beam especially- it needs other powers to initially apply everything for it; not just the defense debuff(s) but even Plasma Burns. Of course, once those are applied, it can also maintain them, though that just means it won't be doing full damage in quick mob fights, and against foes that frequently wipe debuffs, like Baron Cimetiere or Therakiel, frequent reapplication might be necessary. A shoe-in for Vindicator/Overseer or Guardian/Overseer making good use of Bad Sector for sure... again, much like Pulp Fiction Ray Gun. Editing on 7/10/2023 at the risk of being smote down by the auto-mod for daring to edit a large post: to add slash elaborate a tiny bit more, my thought behind the whole "Plasma Burn stack consuming" was that in exchange for being able to maintain both Particle-related damage debuffs once initially applied by other powers or devices, you'd also have to actively apply Plasma Burn stacks to maintain the full benefit, and that without them not only would Destroyer's Gauntlets do noticeably less damage, but you'd also have a lot less breathing space for the defense debuffs themselves. The whole "fire and forget" Bad Sector Overseer solution might work on stationary targets with some allowance for RNG, but for mobile targets, frequent re-placing of Bad Sector would be a (deserved) annoyance as this device would be a self-root-on-maintain. Otherwise, staying in close range using something like Cybernetic Tether with Radiate every two maintains would be a requirement, or potentially sacrificing your Ultimate slot to Meltdown (instead of something more suitable to a ranged DPS) which would still only get you any stacks of Plasma Burn at all part of the time.
Whiteout: "Roin'Esh Graft" a Burning Chi Fist replacer.
"A bodily graft made from fallen Roin'Esh lends caustic, seething venom to your every strike and weakens your foes to your consecutive blows."
*10' range, allows full mobility while using. Takes the same energy to use as Burning Chi Fist and has identical charge and activate times.
*Only affected by the base power's ranks, not by any advantages.
*Deals [Burning Chi Fist] Toxic Damage.
*Fully charging this power applies Noxious Poison to your primary target.
*This power has a 12%-25% chance (based on charge time) to apply Deadly Poison to the primary target.
*If your primary target is affected by Debilitating Poison, fully charging this power adds 5 seconds to the duration of all your stacks of Deadly Poison on the primary target.
*Goes on a 90 sec cooldown if you do not own the Burning Chi Fist power.
This one was absolutely born of the bait-and-switch that was Electric Vengeance. It had no cooldown up until it hit Live (where as of the time of posting, apparently not a single one has dropped, but that issue is neither here nor there.) On Live, that makes it a watered-down Reaper's Embrace, and changes nothing except that people chasing the maximum theoretical parse are now swapping Toxic Nanites for Ball Lightning, or something similar, to alternate BCF and EV strikes, whereas before, even up to less than an hour before, it was a viable alternative to BCF on its own for a build, which made it incredibly interesting! Now, yes, yes, I get it; this is literally just a toxic damage BCF instead. But at least it's something. It sacrifices the slightly higher damage of Ghostly Strikes for dealing one singular damage type, and of one of the types sorely neglected for melee at that (especially since the only main source of it; Devour Essence, was brutally nerfed into the floor.) Chi Flame, in turn, is sacrificed for a ready applier of Noxious Poison that DOESN'T require sacrificing an ult slot or intentionally underranking Infernal Supernatural's main single-target power just to achieve, as well as the potential to build up Deadly Poison over time but still requiring something else if quick application is a necessity, and requiring Debilitating Poison to make that happen at all. Sure, it's BCF under a different skin, but I think all of the three toxic-damage melee players left out there who haven't thrown themselves on their own swords in tragedy and mourning yet would celebrate it, and it'd bring melee toxic tanks back into the limelight to some degree or another too.
Serpent Lantern: "Serpent's Hex" a Fire Snake replacer.
"This spell claimed from a Serpent Mage harries your foes, disrupting their movements and distracting them, leaving them wide open to your more devastating attacks."
*100' range, allows full mobility while using. Takes moderately more energy to use than baseline Fire Snake and has an identical activate time. Cooldown time is halved compared to base Fire Snake.
*Only affected by the base power's ranks, not by any advantages.
*Sends a Mystic Serpent after your foes for 16 sec.
*The Mystic Serpent deals half of [Fire Snake]'s damage in Magic Damage every 1 sec to foes within 10ft.
*Foes within 20ft have their movement speed reduced by 30%/40%/50% and deal 8%/10%/12% less damage based on rank. (This scales up further with Presence, similar to Sigils of Ebon Weakness.)
*When the Mystic Serpent expires, it deals a burst of Magic Damage in a 15ft sphere around it (comparable to- if a little weaker than- Concussion Grenade) and applies Jinxed to all targets hit.
*Goes on a 90 sec cooldown if you do not own the Fire Snake power.
So! This one was an interesting one. Initially, I'd considered a Hydra PVD of some sort, but wanted to stick to the theme of PVDs only existing for base/vanilla powers, not ones that had to be unlocked through other means, whether SCR or Lockboxes or otherwise. With that in mind, and with the VIPER theme of Serpent Lantern, Fire Snake felt like an easy pick. From there, my initial thought was "oh yeah, just make it reverse-repel like U-MD Ghosthunter Phase Rifle," but when I thought on it, that just... wasn't interesting, or noteworthy enough to make it worth picking over base Fire Snake, which ITSELF is either a must-take for Engulfing Flames for a fire DPS, or a never-take because you already have Meteor Blaze to apply Engulfing Flames and Fire Strike to refresh it. But then I thought on it and started writing, and came to the conclusion that; if this is magic damage, why not make it also play into the strength of the Sorcery set? The result was: it deals even less damage than Fire Snake does (very minimal) but bursts at the end like a much weaker Ball Lightning. While it lasts the same time, its cooldown is faster to ensure constant up-time if you spam it, and finally, the most important effect: it acts like a smaller, weaker but slowly mobile Sigil of Ebon Weakness that can't be killed by enemy mobs. A prime pick for healers wanting to buy extra survivability without resorting to... current meta methods of not dying instantly when fifty mobs spawn on top of them, as is the Therakiel's Temple way, and also for DPSes and tanks willing to sacrifice a little DPS and a little aggro potential for some team support. It also has obvious uses for Pre-heavy solo builds buying more survivability in ways that aren't just "lol slap hybrid-role AoRP on it" or "just self-heal harder and stack some Con." More endgame-viable build-diversity that isn't intentionally sandbagging for the sake of Muh Theme, please!
Demonflame: "Qliphoth-Tainted Plasma Rifle" a Pulse Beam Rifle replacer.
"This rifle claimed from a fallen UNTIL soldier has been twisted by the dark, primordial forces of Qliphoth, barely recognizable as an once-earthly weapon; now every shot burns away at body and soul alike."
*100' range, allows full mobility while using. Takes a LOT more energy than Pulse Beam Rifle to use. Has an identical activate time but 5sec maintain time.
*Only affected by the base power's ranks, not by any advantages.
*Deals damage identical to Pulse Beam Rifle's (including the extremely low starting damage and extremely high ending damage based on pulse) every 0.5 seconds, evenly split between Particle Damage and Dimensional Damage. Critical Chance and Critical Severity does NOT increase with each tick.
*The Particle Damage of this power increases up to 50% based on how high your energy is, starting at 25% and ending at 75%.
*The Dimensional Damage of this power increases up to 50% based on how low your health is, starting at 75% and ending at 25%.
*If the target is affected by Devoid, the final tick will deal a moderate burst of Dimensional Damage (comparable to a max pulse of PBR, then modified by how low your health is) in a 25' sphere around the main target, knocking nearby secondary targets in.
*If the target is affected by Disintegrate or Burn Through, the final tick will deal a moderate burst of Particle Damage (comparable to a max pulse of PBR, then modified by how high your energy is) in a 25' sphere around the main target, knocking nearby secondary targets out/away.
*If the target is affected by both Devoid AND Disintegrate or Burn Through, the final tick will deal a large burst of mixed Dimensional Damage and Particle Damage (comparable to a max pulse of PBR x1.5, each half modified by health and energy respectively) in a 25' sphere around the main target, randomly knocking both the primary target and nearby secondary targets either up or down and snaring them. If any target, whether primary or secondary, is immune to knocks, applies Overpower instead.
*Goes on a 90 sec cooldown if you do not own the Pulse Beam Rifle power.
So, let me remind you of something. Munitions by far has the most PVDs available of any powerset in the game, currently: U-MD Ghosthunter Phase Rifle for Submachinegun Burst, Qularr Toxic Rifle (editing at 7/7/2023 again to add/correct at the risk of getting automodded for daring to edit a large post again: and Frost Ice Rifle, making this currently the only power with two PVDs for it) for Assault Rifle, Pulp Fiction Ray Gun for Two Gun Mojo, and Laser Shotgun for Shotgun Blast. If you squint, you could potentially count Lightning Bolter for Lightning Arc, which is Electric but can the skin of your Assault Rifle, but as it's not truly Munitions I'm not counting it for this. Now, let me remind you of something else. Gadgeteering is a set with bad DPS. Not the worst; that goes to Celestial or Earth, but baseline Assault Rifle or 2GM, let alone their PVDs, blow everything in Gadgeteering out of the water, and most other sets have everything they need to do the same. Now, I'm a diehard Pulse Beam Rifle simp, so I figured this'd be the perfect spot to squeeze in what could be Gadgeteering's first PVD. The critical chance and severity bonus that PBR scales up with over the course of each maintain, the only thing keeping it capable of outdamaging Blasts, (Ice Blast still obliterates it for obvious reasons,) is sacrificed for a raw damage increase held back slightly by dealing split damage types that usually never do anything together (particle and dimensional.) Said raw damage increase, of course, comes in the forms of what I described: sticking to the gimmick that PBR loves wild scaling, more energy and less health equals more particle and more dimensional damage, respectively, playing into "broken/overcharged tech" and "Qliphoth = bad and death etcetera" themes. Normally, NORMALLY, you'd only ever be seeing reliable use of the particle side of that buff, essentially a 25% true increase over PBR's base damage (in exchange for no ramping crit buffs) but the lower health thing seemed nice, both as an eleventh hour sort of effect (since if your health is at or below 25%, you're in a bad spot regardless, or else a healer's about to pick you up.) And then, finally, the AoE component as I described it, requiring defense debuffs on the target to proc, is both for a slight extra boost of damage, a little fun chaos factor in mixing in some Shadow Scheme in with Pulse Beam Rifle, and adding some team synergy, since if you have a Qliphoth-Tainted Plasma Rifle and a Qularr Toxic Rifle working together in the same group, the latter will still out-damage the former by far, even without having to stop and block (as this would still suffer from the issue of being backloaded, which very bad in any situation where you have to block frequently, and is half of what holds back PBR in the first place.) In turn, this device isn't going to do good AoE damage; if you're looking for a dedicated AoE rupture then Storm Summoner and Storm Calling still blow it out of the water, as will Electric Vengeance once that starts dropping. The benefit is more making PBR's- or rather, QTPR's- damage more consistent, the backloading less punishing (it's highly punishing for no good reason on base PBR) while giving it the sort of team utility that you'd imagine PBR's Finite Improbability Drive would provide when it really doesn't (and when casual click-powers like Magic Cauldron do that better than PBR FID does anyways.)
Aftershock: "Echo of the Kings" an Eye Beam replacer.
"Your bravery in Qliphoth twice over and your triumph over the Avatars of the Kings has left your very essence broken and seared, and your very gaze carries traces of those same dark powers which devoured worlds."
*100' range, 20' sphere, allows full mobility while using. Takes a LOT more energy than Eye Beam to use. Is a maintain rather than a toggle! Identical activate and maintain time otherwise.
*Only affected by the base power's ranks, not by any advantages.
*Deals MUCH more damage than Eye Beam, to make up for not having two other PA slots backing it up. This damage is Dimensional Damage.
*Damage done to the primary target is 100%. Damage done to secondary targets scales down depending on distance: 80% at 5ft or closer to the primary target, 60% at 6ft to 10ft, 40% at 10ft to 15ft, and 20% at 15ft to 20ft.
*Deals self-damage on use, approximately 30 points per tick per enemy hit; this damage bypasses all defenses. Deals an additional 50 points or so of self-damage per tick if the primary target is affected by Devoid.
*Provides +100% Defense against Healing while being maintained. (Or rather, incoming healing is halved while this power is in use.)
*If the primary target is affected by Devoid, has a 50% chance to apply Chill to the primary target per tick, and a 40%/30%/20%/10% chance to apply Chill to secondary targets per tick based on distance from the primary target. Guaranteed application to the primary target on the final tick.
*Additionally, if the primary target is affected by Devoid, has a 50% chance to apply Clinging Flames to the primary target per tick, and a 40%/30%/20%/10% chance to apply Clinging Flames to secondary targets per tick based on distance from the primary target. Guaranteed application to the primary target on the final tick.
*Goes on a 90 sec cooldown if you do not own the Eye Beam power.
This one. This one, this one, this one... this is the one where I let myself get carried away. By the numbers, the other PVDs I've described here would be strong in some situations and weak in others, sure. They'd have a place to fit in, and the description given for them is really misleading in how strong you'd THINK they are. But THIS one. This one was where I decided to have fun with things. Everybody's been wanting an Eye Beam power that isn't just one third of PA for ages. I've been wanting it for ages too. What resulted was the thought "what if the U-MD Ghosthunter Phase Rifle was disgustingly cracked rather than just a solid munitions PVD?" Taking that and mixing it with the Shadow-Embrace-to-Shadow-Shred glow-up resulted in this. The "Echo of the Kings" PVD. A mobile, 100'-range 20'-sphere, taking a page out of the Ghost Gun's book both by changing what shape of AoE it is entirely, and by doing more or less damage to secondary targets depending on how far away they are from the primary target. However, unlike the Ghost Gun, the Echo of the Kings has no way of directly grouping targets together; it needs other powers- or allies- to do that for it. The trade-off for this is, requiring Devoid present, which means meta Shattering-Rain-in-devices DPSes wouldn't be able to casually throw it at mob crowds unlike weaker/non-meta Shadow-Blast-to-apply DPSes, the application of Clinging Flames to the primary (and potentially secondary, depending on RNG) targets for a slight extra bit of flavor, as well the identical application and chance-application of Chill stacks for the sake of harassing enemy mobs. This also leads to light potential fire synergy, and much stronger ice synergy. Shatter and Rimefire Burst users in particular would love this, as would Ice Sheath users, for obvious reasons. The trade-off for all this is that not only would Echo of the Kings take an enormous amount of energy to use, comparable to U-MD Ghosthunter Phase Rifle at the very least, it would also play into the same "Qliphoth = innately bad and everything dies" theme that Qliphoth-Tainted Plasma Rifle was dabbling with, but much moreso, not by doing more dimensional damage on lower health but by actively- slowly- draining your health and weakening incoming healing significantly while maintaining it. Another layer of challenge for such a potentially-strong device, meaning that especially in more threatening content, usage of it would need to be tactical, or you'd have to sacrifice some DPS for extra self-healing or other survivability tools to make safe use of it. Which would serve also to make it feel even stronger without just giving it bigger damage numbers. What a doozy to close out on.
Needless to say, I really had nothing better to do. And another twenty or so attempts down before getting sidetracked with this and I still haven't gotten the Darkspeed I'm after. But I did manage to complete this wall of spaghetti text to post here, so something came of it at least. Though whether that something was good is more a matter of opinion. Does anyone else have any thoughts of their own for potential AP PVDs? Thoughts on how one or another of these is disgustingly overpowered? (Definitely Echo of the Kings?) Or the obligatory "Burning Chi Fist/PA still outdamages all of these no diff?" I did write these under the assumption that they'd be witheringly rare, mind you.
... I am incredibly bored and have nothing better to do than make up neat-sounding PVDs that you could center an entire build around. (Or make god-forsaken TT trash mobs suffer with. Please, I beg of you. Give me Serpent's Hex if nothing else.)
(Editing here and there to clarify things I forgot to put down. Updated 7/5/2023 with the thought process behind each PVD.)
Defender save my soul, for I have sinned...
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