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New passive devices: "Combat Modifiers"
thisiscraftaaa
Posts: 249 Arc User
The thought came to me just a few hours ago and I figured I ought to bring it up, but, some powersets just lack some of the utilities they might otherwise benefit from, as well as some more niche or specific builds; two I've been chewing on lately in particular.
One such thought? An Ego Weaponry combo build requires Breach or Annihilation to maintain full stacks, which for a combo build generally isn't ideal when compared to other combo builds either having their "required" effects built in or applied via easy-to-fire-and-forget DoTs and similar effects, like Brilliant Cleave or Bullet Ballet.
The other? Having been working over a revised version of the Fissile build that's a lot less meh forced me to come to the realization that outside of Pulp Fiction Ray Guns (which ALREADY needs a buff in and of itself,) and a few Advs for different ranged powers with questionable range and questionable performance (all varying degrees of "eh, why would you take this adv though,") there aren't any real options for consistent ranged Plasma Burn application chance. There are various active devices with long or very long cooldowns that have a random application chance or that guarantee a single application, sure, but relying on a cooldown is bad if you need Plasma Burns available frequently. There's Particle Wave, which isn't the best, isn't the worst, but is really the bare minimum and isn't something worth interrupting a power rotation for. There's Cybernetic Tether, which can be used to steadily work up stacks with Burn Bright and/or Radiate, but forces you into VERY close-range combat, which is fine for melee but far from it for ranged (and in case it wasn't clear, ranged is the fixation here.) There's Bad Sector, which would require you to use Overseer AND be fighting a mostly stationary enemy to make use of it, And that's... it. A Freeform at least gets wiggle room of course, but an Archetype does not.
Pondering how one would solve those without reworking any base powers in and of themselves or throwing new Advs onto things led me to an odd thought. Namely, passive devices. You know the ones; PRIMUS Sparkshield and the Reflect company, plus the TPB gold-voucher gang and Inborn Tenacity, and a handful of passive uncontrollable pet summoning devices and the likes on the side. (We really could use more Reflect devices to fill in for every single damage type but that's a different topic entirely.) If passive devices are allowed to just... passively contribute to damage or, in some cases, even fill in gaps in a build, then why not just push that a little further?
And so I introduce you to the idea of Combat Modifiers.
Firstly, I'll address what Combat Modifiers won't do. None of that "1% chance to spawn a pet every Direct Damage attack no matter how fast or slow you attack" junk, and none of that "be above a high energy threshhold or below a low health threshhold for a chance of a good thing to happen." No requiring an enemy to attack you to do anything, and no "be in shin-tickling range to make a thing actually happen." They will not be applying Defense Debuffs directly, nor will they be applying Crowd Control effects directly.
What Combat Modifiers will do is sport a base chance of 15%/sec (modified by a power's charge, activation, maintain and/or toggle times) to apply their relevant effect or effects to a hostile target or to the user directly. Two 0.5 second Maintain ticks? That's two 7.5% attempts. Winding up a 3-second Force Cascade? That's a 45% chance to apply the relevant effect. So on and so forth. To prevent something silly, like stacking a Bleed, Plasma Burn and Deadly Poison Combat Modifier on top of each-other, only one could be equipped at a time, just like Reflect devices. Application chance is not reduced for using an AoE to hit multiple targets at once in the case of debuffs applied to enemies, though in the case of buffs applied to self, hitting multiple targets will not increase the likelihood of receiving buffs.
In lieu of tying Combat Modifiers to different events and random combat, I'd instead like to raise them as new Q-sinks, which I'd argue- given what they'd do in the examples set below- would fit purple quality/200kQ-250kQ just well.
And having said that, I'd like to make up a few Combat Modifiers to get the idea across.
Crushing: Gravikinetic Converter: 15% chance (base) of applying Power Shield to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Piercing: Nerves of Steel: 15% chance (base) of applying a stack of Furious to self when using any Direct Damage power.
Slashing: Rabid Curse: 15% chance (base) of applying a stack of Bleed to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Cold: Cryogenic Spray: 15% chance (base) of applying a stack of Chilled (at the rank of the power or PVD being used) to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Fire: Incendiary Spray: 15% chance (base) of applying Clinging Flames to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Toxic: Lingering Curse: 15% chance (base) of applying a stack of Deadly Poison to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Electrical: Destroid Capacitor: 15% chance (base) of applying Negative Ions to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Particle: Spent Fuel Rod: 15% chance (base) of applying a stack of Plasma Burn to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Sonic: Foxbat Soundbite: 15% chance (base) of applying Disorient to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Dimensional (Darkness): Abyssal Mark: 15% chance (base) of applying Fear to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Dimensional (Celestial): Ethereal Mark: 15% chance (base) of apply Illuminated to an enemy with any Direct damage power, 15% chance (base) of applying Illumination to self when using any Direct Damage power.
Ego (Telepathy): Domineering Will: 15% chance (base) of applying Ego Sprites (at the rank of the power or PVD being used) to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Ego (Telekinesis): Swelling Ego: 15% chance (base) of applying a stack of Ego Leech to self when using any Direct Damage power.
Magic: Leather-bound Tome: 15% chance (base) of applying Jinxed to an enemy with any Direct Damage power, 15% chance (base) of applying Mystified to self when using any Direct Damage power.
Having written all of that, I'd like to raise that this is just one way of many to interpret the idea of passive devices being unique hole-patchers for builds and for powersets that are lacking some necessary utilities, using the above-mentioned lack of good ranged Plasma Burn appliers and Ego Weaponry's inability to maintain full Ego Leech stacks on its own for combo builds as two examples where this sort of thing would be beneficial. (Alternatively: please give me more good things to spend Questionite on that aren't either total scalping or RNG that you're basically done with forever if you already have all the old event-to-TPB unlocks.)
One such thought? An Ego Weaponry combo build requires Breach or Annihilation to maintain full stacks, which for a combo build generally isn't ideal when compared to other combo builds either having their "required" effects built in or applied via easy-to-fire-and-forget DoTs and similar effects, like Brilliant Cleave or Bullet Ballet.
The other? Having been working over a revised version of the Fissile build that's a lot less meh forced me to come to the realization that outside of Pulp Fiction Ray Guns (which ALREADY needs a buff in and of itself,) and a few Advs for different ranged powers with questionable range and questionable performance (all varying degrees of "eh, why would you take this adv though,") there aren't any real options for consistent ranged Plasma Burn application chance. There are various active devices with long or very long cooldowns that have a random application chance or that guarantee a single application, sure, but relying on a cooldown is bad if you need Plasma Burns available frequently. There's Particle Wave, which isn't the best, isn't the worst, but is really the bare minimum and isn't something worth interrupting a power rotation for. There's Cybernetic Tether, which can be used to steadily work up stacks with Burn Bright and/or Radiate, but forces you into VERY close-range combat, which is fine for melee but far from it for ranged (and in case it wasn't clear, ranged is the fixation here.) There's Bad Sector, which would require you to use Overseer AND be fighting a mostly stationary enemy to make use of it, And that's... it. A Freeform at least gets wiggle room of course, but an Archetype does not.
Pondering how one would solve those without reworking any base powers in and of themselves or throwing new Advs onto things led me to an odd thought. Namely, passive devices. You know the ones; PRIMUS Sparkshield and the Reflect company, plus the TPB gold-voucher gang and Inborn Tenacity, and a handful of passive uncontrollable pet summoning devices and the likes on the side. (We really could use more Reflect devices to fill in for every single damage type but that's a different topic entirely.) If passive devices are allowed to just... passively contribute to damage or, in some cases, even fill in gaps in a build, then why not just push that a little further?
And so I introduce you to the idea of Combat Modifiers.
Firstly, I'll address what Combat Modifiers won't do. None of that "1% chance to spawn a pet every Direct Damage attack no matter how fast or slow you attack" junk, and none of that "be above a high energy threshhold or below a low health threshhold for a chance of a good thing to happen." No requiring an enemy to attack you to do anything, and no "be in shin-tickling range to make a thing actually happen." They will not be applying Defense Debuffs directly, nor will they be applying Crowd Control effects directly.
What Combat Modifiers will do is sport a base chance of 15%/sec (modified by a power's charge, activation, maintain and/or toggle times) to apply their relevant effect or effects to a hostile target or to the user directly. Two 0.5 second Maintain ticks? That's two 7.5% attempts. Winding up a 3-second Force Cascade? That's a 45% chance to apply the relevant effect. So on and so forth. To prevent something silly, like stacking a Bleed, Plasma Burn and Deadly Poison Combat Modifier on top of each-other, only one could be equipped at a time, just like Reflect devices. Application chance is not reduced for using an AoE to hit multiple targets at once in the case of debuffs applied to enemies, though in the case of buffs applied to self, hitting multiple targets will not increase the likelihood of receiving buffs.
In lieu of tying Combat Modifiers to different events and random combat, I'd instead like to raise them as new Q-sinks, which I'd argue- given what they'd do in the examples set below- would fit purple quality/200kQ-250kQ just well.
And having said that, I'd like to make up a few Combat Modifiers to get the idea across.
Crushing: Gravikinetic Converter: 15% chance (base) of applying Power Shield to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Piercing: Nerves of Steel: 15% chance (base) of applying a stack of Furious to self when using any Direct Damage power.
Slashing: Rabid Curse: 15% chance (base) of applying a stack of Bleed to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Cold: Cryogenic Spray: 15% chance (base) of applying a stack of Chilled (at the rank of the power or PVD being used) to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Fire: Incendiary Spray: 15% chance (base) of applying Clinging Flames to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Toxic: Lingering Curse: 15% chance (base) of applying a stack of Deadly Poison to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Electrical: Destroid Capacitor: 15% chance (base) of applying Negative Ions to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Particle: Spent Fuel Rod: 15% chance (base) of applying a stack of Plasma Burn to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Sonic: Foxbat Soundbite: 15% chance (base) of applying Disorient to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Dimensional (Darkness): Abyssal Mark: 15% chance (base) of applying Fear to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Dimensional (Celestial): Ethereal Mark: 15% chance (base) of apply Illuminated to an enemy with any Direct damage power, 15% chance (base) of applying Illumination to self when using any Direct Damage power.
Ego (Telepathy): Domineering Will: 15% chance (base) of applying Ego Sprites (at the rank of the power or PVD being used) to an enemy with any Direct Damage power.
Ego (Telekinesis): Swelling Ego: 15% chance (base) of applying a stack of Ego Leech to self when using any Direct Damage power.
Magic: Leather-bound Tome: 15% chance (base) of applying Jinxed to an enemy with any Direct Damage power, 15% chance (base) of applying Mystified to self when using any Direct Damage power.
Having written all of that, I'd like to raise that this is just one way of many to interpret the idea of passive devices being unique hole-patchers for builds and for powersets that are lacking some necessary utilities, using the above-mentioned lack of good ranged Plasma Burn appliers and Ego Weaponry's inability to maintain full Ego Leech stacks on its own for combo builds as two examples where this sort of thing would be beneficial. (Alternatively: please give me more good things to spend Questionite on that aren't either total scalping or RNG that you're basically done with forever if you already have all the old event-to-TPB unlocks.)
The fact that the forums refuse to tell you how close you are to the character/post size limit until you attempt to post something that happens to be too big- and the automated spam filter will immediately completely lock you out of posting long-term if you attempt to post or edit posts too close to the character limit- is genuine agony.
This is my cry for help
This is my cry for help
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Power Replacers weren't very popular, due in part to being very finicky and generally taking up slots of Primary or Secondary Gear that were better used in other ways; and they're essentially gone from the game now. They could make a comeback, though. You could, for instance, bring back the Contagion Cleaver as a Mod that you can slot into existing Gear, letting you add a secondary amount of Toxic damage to your Single Blade attacks. As you Rank them up, the intensity of that secondary damage type increases, and eventually starts gaining a chance of applying Deadly Poison as well. Or maybe the chance is always there, but becomes more likely the higher the Mod's Rank is. In effect, these would be variations of the current Mods that add some damage to a particular power set's attacks; but instead of adding more of the same type of damage, they'd add a bit of a different damage type, and a status effect.
That would be the most straightforward way to do it; but it runs into most of the same problems that the original Power Replacers had. What I'd prefer to do instead would be to introduce some Passive Power Replacer Devices ("Power Enhancers"?) that can be placed in the Power Replacer slots that are attached to the Device tray. By themselves, they wouldn't do anything; but they'd each define a particular status effect, and have Mod slots that can only take those Mods that add damage to a particular Power Set. Instead of adding damage, those Mods provide a chance of the Power Enhancer's effect to happen. So if your Left Eye of the Ruby Dragon Mod is good for +6%, placing it in a Deadly Poison Enhancer is good for a 6% chance of inflicting Deadly Poison when making an unarmed attack. Possibly double the chance if the attack features an associated damage type.
The Energy Unlocks and Toggle Forms that could easily be made to benefit from these Power Enhancers, and a single status effect that would help, would be:
So the initial Power Enhancers I'd want to make available would be based on: Negative Ions (Electrical), Clinging Flames (Fire), Knock Down (Crushing), Power Shield (Crushing), Repel (Crushing), Chill (Cold), Furious (Piercing), Plasma Burn (Particle), Chi Flame (Dimensional), Ebb and Flow (Dimensional), Ego Leech (Ego), Stun (Ego), Stagger (Crushing), Fear (Dimensional), Illumination for Heals and Illuminated for attacks (Dimensional), Jinxed (Magic), Bleed (Slashing), and Deadly Poison (Toxic).
Organized by damage type, that would be:
Physical
Crushing: Knock Down, Power Shield, Repel, Stagger
Piercing: Furious
Slashing: Bleed, Shredded
Elemental
Cold: Chilled
Fire: Clinging Flames
Toxic: Deadly Poison
Energy
Electrical: Negative Ions
Particle: Plasma Burn
Sonic: Deafening
Mystical
Dimensional: Chi Flame, Ebb and Flow, Fear, Illumination/Illuminated
Ego: Ego Leech, Stun
Magic: Jinxed
I added Shredded under Slashing because that helps with Claws -- albeit not as much as Bleed helps Single Blade.
I added Deafening to Sonic because its the only damage type that doesn't have a Power Enhancer status effect associated with it. Deafening is unique to Sonic, which is why I chose it over Knock Back, Stun, Repel, or Disorient, the other status effects I see associated with it.
And that's 20 Power Enhancers.
That still leaves Archery, Gadgeteer, Power Armor, and Double Blades without effects that synergize nicely with them. I don't see any fixes any time soon, barring Power Set updates; and until that happens, I don't see much point in trying to get other power sets to align with them. Better to go the other way around: grab a Furious Power Enhancer and slot an Archery Mod into it, for example.