What do you think of Gravity Driver as a Power (NOT as a Lockbox gimmick)?

tigerofcachtice · July 2015

I know it's difficult to talk about Gravity Driver without talking about it being a gamble-to-play thing, but I am genuinely interested in your views of it just as a Power, what with this being the Combat and Powers sub-forum.

So, what do you think about the Live version of Gravity Driver? I've had it used against me in PvP, it didn't seem like a big deal at the time, but perhaps it's very useful in PvE scenarios? It looked like it needed stacks of Concentration to work?

Moreover, I've never been that impressed by the Ultimate Powers in general. They always struck me as a bit of a gimmick, maybe something you take merely for added flavour. Is Gravity Driver like that? Or at least the best of them?

Thanks in advance for your views. For now, let's talk about just the Power and not about the Lockbox thing, as we can talk about the Lockbox thing in the CO General Discussion area.

pantagruel01 · July 2015

Gravity Driver is somewhat appealing to me for support builds. Less interesting for dps setups, its long charge time means its overall dps contribution isn't spectacular.

rykus83 · July 2015

it looks cool and be ok for dps f your only running pve stuff for henchmen and mob clean up I was getting any were from 4k to 10k(with crits) and I wasn't even testing on a totally optimized build. looks great to me but em I going to rebuild to fit it in a build not sure yet.

kaiserin · July 2015

It's a good support/team power. While it won't increase your dps on its own, it'll increase a team's dps.

The only other Ultimate that's considered decent is Unleashed Rage. Does great damage, but is not exactly a versatile ability with its rage stack requirements and short range. Gravity Driver is much more versatile, and does quite a bit considering that.

pantagruel01 · July 2015

kaizerin wrote: »

The only other Ultimate that's considered decent is Unleashed Rage.

Implosion engine isn't spectacular, but it has some legitimate uses, mostly for bunching things up so they can be blown up with some other power. Energy Storm and Mind Link are totally unusable, Planar Fracture and Fury of the Dragon are merely mediocre.

tigerofcachtice · July 2015

Thanks for your insight. Classifying it as a team-support power really makes sense to me now.

I also appreciate the comparison to other powers as a frame of reference, I think I know what you mean. I feel the same way about the other Ultimate powers. I now have an idea of how much I'd personally spend to acquire it.

aiqa · July 2015

Not everything is about dps. Having an attack that can wipe out large groups of weaker targets before the fight starts, even when they are spread out, can be very useful. And the ones that are not dead are stunned, so you can get off another big charge attack before you are in danger of getting hit a single time.

theravenforce · July 2015

Gravity Driver

Having been in love with the animation for the power as well as the concept of it from the start, I really like Gravity Driver. The damage it deals (at least on the build I've selected it for) does not deal incredible amounts of damage but in terms of being a utility ability with the stun and the damage resistance debuff, as well as taking out the trashiest of enemies first, it does really well and allows me to feel more useful in boss fights as I now have something aside from basic damage to provide.

I can see it being used to great effect in Rampages like Lemurian Invasion, to wipe out the mobs present, which is perfectly alright.

I'd like to think that the other "failing" or perhaps more accurately, the other lacklustre Ultimates are brought up to GD's level of usefulness in unique ways and perhaps we might get set specific ultimates in addition to the five main ones which we are used to.

Personally, I use GD as an opening attack, usually selecting the central and highest HP member of a large group so that once it fires off I can follow it up with Force Cascade or I can hang back and let others move in after I've done my bit.

Gravity Driver can be used and benefits from stealth via NW and it can benefit from other debuffs quite nicely, so a DPS Support toon might use this ability best or even a straight up debuffer.

In comparison to other Ultimates...my thoughts are as follows.

Planar Fracture

Planar Fracture needs to be re-worked to still fit the concept of opening a rift but something MUCH more sinister than a random debuff and medium dimensional damage should reach out of it. I remember posting my ideas about re-worked Ultimates somewhere on this forum. Gravity Driver beats it on utility and damage. IMO, it needs to be brought UP to GD's level of usefulness. It should be a lot larger, have a very wide reach in terms of it's damage (think 30-40ft sphere) and probably drag foes towards it, even phasing them out of this reality dealing high dimensional damage etc.

Mind Link

Mind Link, this is actually a useful but highly situational Ultimate power. Take a high DPS (non DoT preferably) friend and try out Mind Link. You don't need lots of EGO to wipe out a room full of opponents with it, you just need to time it right. But I would prefer if it worked a bit differently perhaps maybe like a damage reflect (think Psimon or Baron Cimitire's block). Gravity Driver beats it in terms of utility and most likely damage so it too needs to be brought up to GD's level. I think Mind Link should deal it's own damage and also provide damage reflect in a similar manner to how Psionic Reflective Shield works for Psimon, Psionic Director etc.

Energy Storm

Energy Storm, the appeal of this power is lost behind the inordinate amount of requirements it has to be useful or apply significant debuffs. Currently, having a build which applies, Clinging Flames, Negative Ions, Chill and Containment Fields may not be ideal but it is doable, however realistically it is a bit too much set up for one ultimate attack which at best:

- Deals Particle Damage
- Deals Chain Damage from one target to another (w/ Negative Ions on a target when absorbed)
- Deals AoE Damage (w/ Clinging Flames on target when absorbed)
- Applies a fairly potent debuff to damage (w/ a target contained within a Containment Field or using PFF, Protection Field, Mindful Reinforcement, Hardened Particle Matrix, Energy Refraction or Field Surge)
- Increases the critical severity that the attack has (w/ Chill applied to the target)

As it has been explained before this power can be abused in PvP vs shielded players or people who use PFF (since it can fully absorb and prevent the application of shields continually). It has situational benefits vs PvE enemies with PFF or shields, but that in itself is very rare.

Also you run the risk of messing up other player's DPS or attack rotations by absorbing Chill, Negative Ions or Clinging Flames vs players who use Lightning Arc or Rimefire Burst. (Chill isn't actually absorbed but this is a bug so...)

I'd like it if Energy Storm didn't affect PFF or Field Surge but could rightly affect all other forms of shielding, and had a component which drained HP and Energy from targets (max 10) whilst maintained, perhaps buffing your own whilst you have the charge. It wouldn't interact with Negative Ions, Chill, Clinging Flames or Containment Field like it used to but would be useful by itself.

Implosion Engine

As it has been said...it has some uses, I guess you could have one character on the team who uses Implosion then another who slams down with GD and anyone left is taken out by UR but meh. It'd probably be a better power if the reverse repel was increased immensely, so it could not be escaped by NPCs (aside from SV and up obviously) and even players would have a hard time against it's pull and then once it comes to the end of it's damage/reverse repel, it explodes for high energy damage.

Fury of the Dragon

Lol. I can't say too much about this Ultimate because I've never been too interested in it. It looks cool but...that's about it.

theravenforce · July 2015

Also, I'd add that Energy Storm's buff, Infused Energy is supposed to provide at very best, 80% increased damage whilst active (each stack = 10% increased damage) and can be useful for just self buffing, that's what I use it for sometimes.

I use it on an Electric Form toon but only at rank 2 and my highest damage with it (counting the chained damage) is 12k, but I'm full END and Concentration grants me around 6% per stack. I've seen other players hit higher values with it before but those were through the use of various buffs and specs. Still it can be used to good effect.

kaiserin · July 2015

pantagruel01 wrote: »

kaizerin wrote: »

The only other Ultimate that's considered decent is Unleashed Rage.

Implosion engine isn't spectacular, but it has some legitimate uses, mostly for bunching things up so they can be blown up with some other power. Energy Storm and Mind Link are totally unusable, Planar Fracture and Fury of the Dragon are merely mediocre.

I've used Implosion Engine a couple times. I just don't really see it as an ultimate ability, be a decent normal one. Same goes for Planar Fracture.
Mind Link is...weird. It can do some neat stuff but is about as impractical as a power gets. Looks really cool.
Energy Storm cannot be redeemed.
Fury of the Dragon needs to be a click and do a smidge more damage.
I also think Fire All Weapons should be tagged as an Ultimate.

aiqa · July 2015

kaizerin wrote: »

I also think Fire All Weapons should be tagged as an Ultimate.

I agree but it also needs to add knock resistance during the maintain.
So often I get knocked half a second after the maintain starts, which puts it right back on cooldown.

avianos · July 2015

I'm surprised how much I like this Ultimate
I use it on my Elemental Mage - Rimefire Build, perfect synergy with Stormbringer

It's perfect for my Build, I finally found my INDIGNATION . If you are Familiar with Namco's Tales of Series, you know what is up!
[video]

https://youtu.be/p8gTmGFN6Vk[/video]

Now I need to find someone with a DHAOS clone, and use it on him! ;D
Too bad the FF Slot doesn't allow to colour powers, I could colour it Purple

That said, I'm also sad and angry that they didn't bothered to BUFF the other Ultimates

again, before Gravity Drive, Unleashed rage was the ONLY Ultimate which was good

Fury of the Dragon doesn't scale correctly with Focus stacks like UR do with rage, Has Targeting/Camera issues (your camera is facing a spot where there are no enemies? Congratulations you just wasted the so called Ultimate), it's a maintenance, CONE and I can archieve the SAME and even better Damage numbers by using One Hundred Hands
YES it's a Pretty Power, but NO i'm not going to use it until they BUFF it and Fix everything wrong with it

Planar Fracture is awful

Energy Storm has too much build up (I tried to use it on my Said Elemental Mage build... it didn't worked at all) it should had been Click like Rimefire

Mind Link is super situational and you need to stack EGO (I personaly hate it)

Implosion Engine... I still like Implosion Engine but I'm not sure why it's an ultimate

They need to BUFF those powers, they cannot avoiding them Buffing for ever

They need to revist old powers before making new one

avianos · September 2015

For future reference, I want to see more BADASS powers like Gravity Driver!
and more ULTIMATES for MELEE players (I got bored of Unleashed Rage Really fast)

gradii wrote: »

I remember Indignation best from the US version of Tales Of Symphonia..

"I CALL UPON YE IN THE LAND OF THE DEAD TO UNLEASH THY FURY OF THUNDER.. INDIGNATION!"

lol.

The Tales of the Abyss version is EVEN better and with Jade's badass boast
[video]

https://youtu.be/EtCiP8B2xpc[/video]
"I, who stand in the full light of the heavens command thee, who opens the
gates of hell, come forth divine lightning! This ends now! Indignation!"

Jade Curtiss is snarky, sarcastic and badass and I love everything about him

raighn · September 2015

So I finally got around to testing the power out myself today... and OMG!!! I LOVE IT!!!

I've got it on my bubble/shielder build and when combined with the crushing damage buff from Redirected Force I have been able to get it up over 10k damage... on a support build none-the-less... AoRP+IDF, so the only damage bonuses I have are from superstats and Redirected Force... Unbuffed the power hits 3K for her...

chuckwolf · October 2015

I personally love this power, and I avoided the gamble by buying it from the AH. One thing I do dislike though is while charging it it basically has the exact same animation as if you were charging Force Cascade from the same emanation point, it needs something to distinguish it, but that's just a personal thing.

avianos · October 2015

chuckwolf wrote: »

I personally love this power, and I avoided the gamble by buying it from the AH. One thing I do dislike though is while charging it it basically has the exact same animation as if you were charging Force Cascade from the same emanation point, it needs something to distinguish it, but that's just a personal thing.

If you are Gold Subscriber you can change the emanation of the power, I have seen people use the "CHEST" Emanation point for charging it!... its kind of weird actually

Unfortenly this feature is not available for silver FFs

tigerofcachtice · October 2015

I was playing around with this power a lot and agree with everything that was said. It's a pretty good choice for an Ultimate Power because the others in that category have the issues that were mentioned. I really like it.

I put it on a Stormbringer DPS toon, so that's a good fit. Kinetic Manipulation and Earth Form work well, too, IIRC.

avianos said:
If you are Gold Subscriber you can change the emanation of the power, I have seen people use the "CHEST" Emanation point for charging it!... its kind of weird actually

Unfortenly this feature is not available for silver FFs

I know what you mean. I did exactly this and my character looks like she's either a.) really concentrating hard or b.) really constipated. Probably both. Then SPLOOSH like the world's biggest toilet flushing right on top of enemies!

I love being a Subscriber for this reason alone.

chuckwolf · October 2015

avianos said:

chuckwolf wrote: »

I personally love this power, and I avoided the gamble by buying it from the AH. One thing I do dislike though is while charging it it basically has the exact same animation as if you were charging Force Cascade from the same emanation point, it needs something to distinguish it, but that's just a personal thing.

If you are Gold Subscriber you can change the emanation of the power, I have seen people use the "CHEST" Emanation point for charging it!... its kind of weird actually

Unfortenly this feature is not available for silver FFs

I've got an LTS and yes I tried the Chest emanation point, but then it looks like you're trying to charge a Power Armor Chest beam, it's just in the way your character holds his arms, hands etc. that makes it seem as if he wants the attack to go out in front of him instead of overhead. But like I said it's just a aesthetics thing.

What do you think of Gravity Driver as a Power (NOT as a Lockbox gimmick)?

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