FC.31.20160729.8 - Power Changes/New Powers Feedback

kaiserin · August 2016

Please post feedback relating to the recent changes to powers here.

Please format any bugs you find in the following format:
Bug
Where it happens
What happens

Please format any suggestions you have in the following format:
Suggestion
Your suggestion

Please stay on topic in this PTS thread. We use bug reports from this thread to decide whether a PTS build is ready to go live, and so we need to make sure we're seeing everything in it. Please do discuss the changes, but if you find yourself writing about something that isn't specific to what's on PTS, then that should probably go here: http://forum.arcgames.com/championsonline/categories/gameplay-bugs1.
Posts that do not specifically pertain to the current PTS patch will be removed.

lunnylunny · August 2016

I personally don't see the reason behind making Mind Drain be a GCR shop power. It does exactly the same as Lifedrain, though the animation looks pretty good. Sure it still needs some work, but the character animation (not the skill's) looks pretty well made.

aesica · August 2016

lunnylunny said:
I personally don't see the reason behind making Mind Drain be a GCR shop power. It does exactly the same as Lifedrain, though the animation looks pretty good. Sure it still needs some work, but the character animation (not the skill's) looks pretty well made.

Exactly what I came here to bring up. Mind Drain is literally a copy-paste of Lifedrain, right down to its AoE-heal advantage, so there's no reason I can think of for anyone to buy this power unless they literally have nothing else to blow their GCR on. It should either be just added to the power lineup by default, or given some sort of functionality changes or advantages to set it apart from (but not necessarily make it blatantly superior to) Lifedrain.

Also, I suspect the tooltips haven't been set yet, but just in case:

Bug: Tooltips are funky. Since picture are worth more than words, I'll just do this:

This also applies to Shadow Eruption:

This tooltip probably hasn't been set yet, but I'm bringing it up anyway just in case. This is aids:

Having said that, is there some way to test these powers out without needing all that random currency? Like a test vendor or something?

kamokami · August 2016

aesica said:
Having said that, is there some way to test these powers out without needing all that random currency? Like a test vendor or something?

you can get currency packs from the debugger

theravenforce · August 2016

Re-posting my thoughts on Mind Drain:

I figured there'd be a little bone thrown at Telepathy, good to see I wasn't wrong

anyways:

* Mechanics for this power as well as the initial maintained animation are pretty pleasing at the moment.

* It's basically an ego damage version of Lifedrain (as noted), so the energy cost is pretty much where it should be IMO, however it should benefit from Mentalist power cost reductions from ID Mastery, Ego Form and Congress of Selves. Currently it does not as Lifedrain and Mind Drain have identical energy costs.

* Adjust where it sits on the All Powers window, it is listed as a HEALING power, whilst Lifedrain is listed as a RANGED ATTACK power.

Bug
Mind Drain: Mind Drain does not benefit from Mentalist Cost reductions from ID Mastery, Ego Form and Congress of Selves.

Suggestion
Mind Drain: Rename "Deplete" advantage to "Psychic Surgery". It sounds so much better than "Your Deplete heals Player 2".

Suggestion
Mind Drain: Is listed as a heal power whilst Lifedrain is in the Ranged Attack category. Either move Lifedrain to "Healing" category or move Mind Drain to "Ranged Attack" category within their respective power sets.

Suggestion
Mind Drain: STEAL Courtney Olmacher's VFX for this power's maintain!! Note: Courtney's maintain is not actually a power but is a VFX only, so it won't be attached to a power. Just make it thicker and "cooler"

(I refer to the pink semi circle like chains from my character's head to his (whilst he is trying to use Bite). Perhaps change the way it 'moves' so it looks like it's draining from your enemy and boosting you? IIRC his maintain looks like a constant back and forth stream.

Suggestion
Mind Drain: Use some older SFX from Telepathy for this power's maintain. Something like Empathic Healing or some "mentalist" sounding maintain (not TKA). Older Telepathy has nice sounds mostly, please re use them or variants of them for telepathy powers. (#SaveMindBreakFromItsAwfulSound2016)

Suggestion

Mind Drain: Adjust Mind Drain's animation so that your character is not shoving their fingers into their right eye or near to it. Like so:

Suggestion
Severely reduce or REMOVE the Silver Champions Recognition & Gold Champion Recognition cost for Mind Drain - Mind Drain's cost for SCR/GCR...is stupid.

Mind Drain is essentially an ego damage version of Lifedrain, why it costs so much is beyond me, it almost seems spiteful. Unless it does something unique innately that no other ability does and I've completely missed that.

Neuroelectric Pulse and Hydra both do unique things that no other powers in CO do, yet, two fairly ordinary powers are going to cost an insane amount? No thank you.

Just let Mind Drain and Shadow Eruption be free powers. There is already plenty in that store to spend stuff on.

theravenforce · August 2016

Re-posting my thoughts on Shadow Eruption:

*Needs specifics & more information to better understand what it should be doing, so I'll reserve judgement until it is updated.

*Shadow Eruption VFX and SFX. All the YES from me!

Looks very cool, sounds cool too!: Click here for screenies

*Current power description states that it applies a stun, but it does not actually apply any sort of stun to targets, only knocks them back, so I'm guessing either its a direct rip from Shady D (his stuns I think) OR, it's meant to be an advantage. Either way, it stacks Manipulator, so something is wrong.

*Shadow Eruption has a forced charge. This should probably be removed. I think the knock back and stun should only occur on full charge, whilst spam taps just apply a lower end of damage.

*This power is basically like a better TK Maelstrom, so probably needs a cool down on par with TK Maelstrom (Ignore this piece of feedback if the power is NOT meant to innately stun).

Suggestion
Shadow Eruption: Remove the forced charge from Shadow Eruption

Suggestion
Shadow Eruption: Give this power a cool down to bring it in line with TK Maelstrom as they both stun (or try to) at base level. Ignore this suggestion if the power is only meant to knockback without any advantages.

Suggestion
Shadow Eruption: Remove the stun from this power and turn it into an advantage. 2 point Screaming Darkness advantage - You expose your foes to wailing horrors in a short space of time, temporarily stunning them. - Allows your Shadow Eruption to apply a stun to affected targets.

Suggestion
Shadow Eruption: 2 point Advantage: Umbral Surge: By exposing your enemies to your dark powers you can reinvigorate yourself and any allies within the power's radius by feeding off the fears of your enemies. - Shadow Eruption now applies Feed on Fear to you and allies within a 25ft sphere by consuming the Fear Debuff. Feed on Fear is a HoT. (Would require another clause for Spirit Reverberation which rewards players for consuming the Fear Debuff perhaps)

Suggestion
Shadow Eruption: Shadow Eruption is classed as a "Ranged Area Attack" when it is actually a "Close Area Attack". Please adjust.

Suggestion
Shadow Eruption: One thing I've noticed with Darkness is that there are actually not many instances to reliably apply Fear. Consider allowing Shadow Eruption to innately: Deal Damage, Knock Back & Apply Fear to targets.

Bug: This ability stacks Manipulator but does not apply a stun to targets.

aesica · August 2016

kamokami said:

aesica said:
Having said that, is there some way to test these powers out without needing all that random currency? Like a test vendor or something?
you can get currency packs from the debugger

Where is that?

sigmaseven0 · August 2016

I feel that purchased powers (GCR and Onslaught) are way overpriced for what they are. IMHO these powers aren't sexy (ie powerful/unique) enough to justify the price. A lot of the permanent devices are more appealing than the GCR/onslaught powers. If your dev statistics show that people are aquireing these powers at the rate you want, then fine. If not, it would be a shame if the resources that get put into making these powers go to waste.

I personally never see these powers out in the wild.

Honestly, I think these powers belong in lock boxes, or should be tied to perks. The ultimate powers that come in lock boxes are way more sexy/ez to get.

aesica · August 2016

sigmaseven0 said:
I feel that purchased powers (GCR and Onslaught) are way overpriced for what they are. IMHO these powers aren't sexy (ie powerful/unique) enough to justify the price. A lot of the permanent devices are more appealing than the GCR/onslaught powers. If your dev statistics show that people are aquireing these powers at the rate you want, then fine. If not, it would be a shame if the resources that get put into making these powers go to waste.

I personally never see these powers out in the wild.

Honestly, I think these powers belong in lock boxes, or should be tied to perks. The ultimate powers that come in lock boxes are way more sexy/ez to get.

Sounds about right, unfortunately. I use Gravitic Ripple, but it's mainly just for fun because I had an extra power slot available. The cooldown is too long and the damage is too weak, making it more of a "hey look at this flashy thing I can do every so often!" ability rather than something that is functionally useful.

Having said that, I like to pick up these powers when I can, but it's not because they're good since they mostly suck. I just do it for the sake of collection.

roughbearmattach · August 2016

sigmaseven0 said:
I
I personally never see these powers out in the wild.

Honestly, I think these powers belong in lock boxes, or should be tied to perks. The ultimate powers that come in lock boxes are way more sexy/ez to get.

My Warlock uses Hydra all the time. It is super useful for destroying Frost Tombs at Kiga.

A couple of my toons use Neuroelectric Pulse, too, especially since it has a HoT adv now.

soulforger · August 2016

aesica said:

kamokami said:

aesica said:
Having said that, is there some way to test these powers out without needing all that random currency? Like a test vendor or something?
you can get currency packs from the debugger
Where is that?

The debugger is next to the MC powerhouse entrance near the center of rencen on the pts only. And he sells 1000 recog packs.

notyuu · August 2016

1: The pricing on the new powers [as well as hrydra] seems rather steep, I hope for the sake of not going insane/giving up on the grind all together that they are lowered to neuroeletric pulse prices.

2: still no flamethrower power? [everything is in place, it would be a 1:1 conversion from the steelhead flamethrower] after all..what better way is there to deal with horrors, monsters and generally unpleasant things than killing it with fire.

3: I agree with theravenforce, mind drain VFX should be taken from Courtney Olmacher's maintain attack.

Unknown · August 2016

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riverocean · August 2016

I played around with Mind Drain - it's a very nice and thematic attack for those who are playing "psychics". The fact that's ego based damage is icing on the cake.

I'm sure all four of us with with Telepath themed builds will probably get it. But the appeal is so niche, I just don't see the reasoning for putting it behind such an expensive paywall. Lower the cost a little. It's not like it's a power tons of players are clamoring for or so OP that people will get it for their frankenbuilds.

aesica · August 2016

riverocean said:
I played around with Mind Drain - it's a very nice and thematic attack for those who are playing "psychics". The fact that's ego based damage is icing on the cake.

I'm sure all four of us with with Telepath themed builds will probably get it. But the appeal is so niche, I just don't see the reasoning for putting it behind such an expensive paywall. Lower the cost a little. It's not like it's a power tons of players are clamoring for or so OP that people will get it for their frankenbuilds.

Until Mind Drain offers unique perks to set it apart from Lifedrain, there's no reason for it to be behind a paywall at all. Even Slash and the barbed chain micro-set would've made more sense as premium unlocks than Mind Drain does in its current form.

theravenforce · August 2016

riverocean said:
I played around with Mind Drain - it's a very nice and thematic attack for those who are playing "psychics". The fact that's ego based damage is icing on the cake.

I'm sure all four of us with with Telepath themed builds will probably get it. But the appeal is so niche, I just don't see the reasoning for putting it behind such an expensive paywall. Lower the cost a little. It's not like it's a power tons of players are clamoring for or so OP that people will get it for their frankenbuilds.

I genuinely LOL'd at that!

But yeah, they should either lower the cost to such an extent that a couple of runs of TA or Cosmics unlocks it (around 10 runs) or tie it to the taking out of XXXX amount of PSI members for a perk and make it redeemable at the perk store.

Perhaps tie Shadow Eruption to something similar or make it unlockable in the new content after completing certain missions or taking out a set amount of Trey Kings / Horrors.

As I said earlier, and as aesica has said just above me, there's no actual reason (much like the Telepathy nerfs

) for it to be locked behind SCR and GCR.

spinnytop · August 2016

riverocean said:
I'm sure all four of us with with Telepath themed builds will probably get it.

My telepath won't get it, because she needs a power to heal herself that doesn't damage things around her, so she'll be sticking with Empathic Healing. Guess it's only 3 people.

aesica · August 2016

So after playing around with it, Shadow Eruption is a total mess. Aside from what I mentioned above....

Bug: Currently, Shadow Eruption...

Doesn't actually stun anything.
Doesn't apply DR to targets it knocks back.
Doesn't have an energy cost (!)
Doesn't allow for partial charges--once you start using it, you can't stop the charge unless something somehow interrupts you.

In addition to all that...

Suggestion: It doesn't look shadowy. At all. If anything, it's blindingly bright:

It needs to be darker.

williamkony · August 2016

I know these powers haven't really been affected by this specific patch, but...

Discrepancy: Ego Storm, whether in maintain or toggle form, can build Manipulator stacks without hitting a target. Other PBAoE control powers, however, such as Telekinetic Eruption, Thunderclap, and Neuroelectric Pulse, do not.

Please note, I'd much rather not bring about a nerf to Ego Storm's stack-building capability. Rather, it'd be good to have MORE options for building and maintaining stacks out of combat, since crowd control is very much the kind of thing you want at full strength at the beginning of combat, plus the 20-second limit on Manipulator stacks means they fall off if your holds are good enough to last beyond those 20 seconds (which they pretty much have to, if you're doing any sort of meaningful crowd control).

kaiserin · August 2016

theravenforce · August 2016

MIND DRAIN IS AWESOME.

This of course means I will definitely have to obtain it.

theravenforce · August 2016

Okay...so....

Mind Drain:

New VFX: All the Yes. Thank you for listening to my suggestion!

New SFX: Reminds of something from Resistance for some reason, it's kinda piercing...but you're draining someone's mind so it's probably not going to sound...pleasant...

New SCR Cost: 350 SCR is much more reasonable. Thank you for listening to feedback about Mind Drain!

Suggestion: Some players may find Mind Drain's New SFX grating after a while? Consider changing it to something very similar if not the same as, Empathic Healing.

Suggestion
Mind Drain: Rename "Deplete" advantage to "Psychic Surgery". It sounds so much better than "Your Deplete heals Player 2".

Bug: Mind Drain doesn't seem to be benefitting from Mentalist Power Cost discounts from Ego Form, ID Mastery or Congress of Selves.

Unknown · August 2016

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dommit · August 2016

Bug:
Head Butt will not set to the power hotbar.
Bug:
Rifle Butt will not set to the power hotbar.

theultimax · August 2016

Along with the changes to Plasma Beam being a toggle, can you also swap the animations with the Device. The device one's just look so much better.

Unknown · August 2016

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dakrushmor · August 2016

l completely disagree with plazmabeam being a toggle only, as it has Advantage to apply plasma burns, think about Laser Sword builds. Also think about Energy Weapon builds, which Plasma Beam was only option as true energy-based maintain. l think it makes sense to add 0-pt advantage for it, that will revert it back to its MAINTAIN version, but lockout any PA powers usage with it. If you won't do that - prepare for HUEG backlash, that you won't forget for the rest of your life!

jaazaniah1 · August 2016

Like they care about player backlash!

dakrushmor said:
l completely disagree with plazmabeam being a toggle only, as it has Advantage to apply plasma burns, think about Laser Sword builds. Also think about Energy Weapon builds, which Plasma Beam was only option as true energy-based maintain. l think it makes sense to add 0-pt advantage for it, that will revert it back to its MAINTAIN version, but lockout any PA powers usage with it. If you won't do that - prepare for HUEG backlash, that you won't forget for the rest of your life!

meeoeoowie · August 2016

As stated earlier in this thread, both positive and negative, Shadow Eruption is... well:

Permission from Ravenforce

It's really bright. It's brighter than most Celestial powers, Fire powers and almost any other powers I can think of at the top of my head.

And on the subject of fire powers, the visuals of the power fit better within the fire powerset than the darkness powerset:

d02T1vD.jpg?1

It's a cool effect, it's the brightest, most over the top explosion I've seen a player use, and I think it would fit perfectly with the Fire Ultimate idea I have over on my own thread (shameless plug, sorry), but it doesn't fit Darkness.

I suggest saving the VFX for another time, and finding either a new VFX or repurpose an old one for Shadow Eruption, just not this...

.....not this.

dakrushmor · August 2016

Also if compare to Concussor Beam, plasma beam deals 10% more damage. And it's AoE attack. Previously concussor beam was taken, because it's Toggle, and therefore allows usage of attacks like Chest Beam, but what's the point of taking Concussor now? While graphically it looks way more appealing. Thus l suggest Plasma Beam be non-PA Maintain by default (like Energy Wave), & 2 pt adv to convert it to Hand Slot Toggle.

spinnytop · August 2016

dakrushmor said:
Also if compare to Concussor Beam, plasma beam deals 10% more damage. And it's AoE attack. Previously concussor beam was taken, because it's Toggle, and therefore allows usage of attacks like Chest Beam, but what's the point of taking Concussor now? While graphically it looks way more appealing. Thus l suggest Plasma Beam be non-PA Maintain by default (like Energy Wave), & 2 pt adv to convert it to Hand Slot Toggle.

I dunno, is the aiming on Plasma Beam still garbage?

jonsills · August 2016

Aiming? Plasma Beam? I don't think those fit into the same sentence...

dakrushmor · August 2016

meeoeoowie said:

Tint it green & it will be awesome Nuclear power for Radiation powerset.

Really not sure, why this visual is gotta be wasted for reskinned Expulse/Pillar of Poz, that no one uses, but that's up to @kaizerin

dakrushmor · August 2016

spinnytop said:

I dunno, is the aiming on Plasma Beam still garbage?

You can always turn on auto-facing targets, tho maintained (live) plasmabeam never fired if target is above or below. But generally no-targets powers are good to use lMO.

dakrushmor · August 2016

Well, someone hafta test, l just hope this workaround gonna work for first time:


alias meow1 "inventoryexec {} offense 0 $$ powertrayexec 1 2 $$ bind 3 +meow2"
alias meow2 "inventoryexec {} offense 0 $$ powertrayexec 1 2 $$ powerscancelallactivations $$ bind 3 +meow1"
alias remeow "bind 3 +meow1"

On live l experimented with PA toggles & it converts them to something remotely looking like maintains.
But generally @kaizerin need to multiply technology powers. We already got plenty of energy projector, psychic, mystic, might, and whole bunch of Bestial ones. And hi-tech theme need its love too.

aesica · August 2016

dakrushmor said:
You can always turn on auto-facing targets, tho maintained (live) plasmabeam never fired if target is above or below. But generally no-targets powers are good to use lMO.

Auto-facing doesn't work with plasma beam, which is fine since it's a skillshot power, something I wish there was more of. My only complaint with its targeting mechanism is that I can't aim it along the z axis, making it a pain in the **** if my targets are at the top of a flight of stairs or something.

spinnytop · August 2016

dakrushmor said:

spinnytop said:

I dunno, is the aiming on Plasma Beam still garbage?
You can always turn on auto-facing targets, tho maintained (live) plasmabeam never fired if target is above or below. But generally no-targets powers are good to use lMO.

So then that's a yes. There's your answer for why I might continue to use Concussor Beam.

aesica · August 2016

So as a power by itself, Shadow Eruption is Force Eruption with a cooldown on it. It's literally only going to be even remotely useful for its advantages, even though many of these are available from other sources as well. Also, it's still blindingly bright.

Bug: The Dragback advantage is only knocking one target toward me instead of a group of targets.

Suggestion: The Consume Fear advantage is counter-productive to the way the shadow powerset works. You want fear on targets for various reasons--damage buffs, energy unlock, etc. It would be better as: Shadow Eruption applies Fear to all targets not currently affected by Fear. Those already affected by Fear take additional damage (but don't consume the effect, that's dumb in this case).

dakrushmor · September 2016

kaizerin said:

Palliate
Absolve Advantage: Threat wipe will only work on yourself now and cannot be used on other players.

Threat wipe has a 50ft radius and can affect up to 5 targets.

This effect will work even if you use the heal on another target.

Puts all other threat wipes on cooldown.

With this l would disagree, l use this as both selfheal & threatwipe for my ranged toons, and they've 100' attacks. 50' means that enemies outside of that range will still have my aggro, which is bad.

l also would argue about Vala's Light chance, since there are healers, that have it as primary heal, because AV can catch players that are closer to tanks & therefore steal targets. lllumination is also useful for healing DPS at Kiga.

Generally well done, l always appreciate adding new powers, a fortiori Maintains. But replacing functionality of already existing concepts, that people already got used to play for, beyond recognition, isn't that great lMO.

Unknown · September 2016

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circleofpsi · September 2016

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circleofpsi · September 2016

lunnylunny said:
I personally don't see the reason behind making Mind Drain be a GCR shop power. It does exactly the same as Lifedrain, though the animation looks pretty good. Sure it still needs some work, but the character animation (not the skill's) looks pretty well made.

This ^

We don't need powers to be locked behind the GCR, unless they are tradeable in the AH, but still I agree, theres no point

aiqa · September 2016

Bug:
The Deplete adv on Mind Drain does not function.

dataweaver42 · September 2016

Could we take this opportunity to streamline the names of the power sets within the Mystic category? Instead of:

* Celestial
* Darkness
* Arcane Sorcery
* Infernal Supernatural
* Bestial Supernatural

How about just:

* Celestial
* Darkness
* Sorcery
* Infernal
* Bestial

Keep it simple. Note that Curse and Entrancing already do this: they're tagged as "Infernal" rather than "Infernal Supernatural".

That said, there are still some powers that are exclusively shared by Infernal and Bestial: Soul Mesmerism, Venomous Breath, Pestilence, Resurgence, Regeneration, and Supernatural Power. I wouldn't mind splitting most of these into Bestial and Infernal versions:

* [b]Soul Mesmerism[/b] would become Infernal, while Bestial would get a [b]Mesmerizing Gaze[/b] variant that replaces Glossolalia with... I don't know; something more beast-themed.
* [b]Venomous Breath[/b] really ought to be Infernal only, given the recent effort to emphasize a Toxic/Poison vs. Slashing/Bleed divide between the two power sets. I don't think Bestial really needs a replacement for it; it already has a means of inflicting Slashing damage and Bleeds on targets in a cone in front of the beast. But if you want to compensate for its removal from the Bestial power set, consider giving Bestial some sort of [b]Webbing[/b] power. A reskin of Bolo would be great.
* [b]Pestilence[/b], like Venomous Breath, would become Infernal instead of Supernatural. Bestial could get a [b]Spines[/b] power that acts as a Damage Shield (see Eye of the Storm, but as a Slotted Passive instead of a Maintain).
* Resurgence would split into [b]Infernal Resurgence[/b] and [b]Bestial Resurgence[/b]. The former would consume stacks of Poison for bonus healing, while the latter would consume stacks of Bleed for bonus healing. Otherwise, they'd work as Resurgence currently does.
* Regeneration would likewise be split into [b]Bestial Regeneration[/b] and [b]Infernal Regeneration[/b] versions, differentiated by added resistance or even immunity to damage from Bleeds and Poisons, respectively. You still get the stacks of Bleeds or Poisons, respectively; but they're less of a problem for you.
* Supernatural Power would be renamed as [b]Mystic Power[/b], and would be broadened to apply to Celestial, Darkness, and Sorcery as well as Bestial and Infernal. I'd eventually want Celestial and Sorcery to get their own Energy Unlocks; but Mystic Power could fill the gap until then.

meeoeoowie · September 2016

This post is relating to the quite recent
Power Changes/Anniversary Stuff Patch
Above is a link, thread posted 21st of September, week ago today.

It came to my attention that Star Barrage supposedly has gained Rank 3 visuals, and maybe it has, but I think Star Barrage and Soul Beam both are in need of some visual improvement still. Below there will be some "spoilered" images and comments on other powers that are similar enough to warrant comparison, all powers presented at rank 3 with the same bright coloration.

Lightning Arc:

Pretty intense, as to be expected when there is a lot of power directed at one target. It's like a constant, electrical deathbeam, awesome!

Heat Wave:

This power is always a bit strange to draw comparisons with, as a heatwave isn't necessarily something that needs to look very intense. Regardless, the air ripples intensely as embers fly towards the currently burning enemy, it looks cool, it's very pretty and subtle in a good way; it's scary.

Telekinetic Assault:

Where this power may lack intense visuals and "power", I feel like it pretty easily makes up with how elegant and pretty the FLYING ENERGY SWORDS ARE. Flying TK blades look cool, they have a nice pathing, and look pretty for what they're supposed to be, and I honestly don't see why it would do anything else in terms of FX.

Celestial Conduit:

I don't feel the need to explain much, it's probably one of the more impressive powers in the game, with the slow float-up and stream of light deathlasering enemies. Who knew that a healing power would look almost more devastating than some damage powers when flipped over?

Now, I understand that Soul Beam may be awaiting Rank FX, and if so then that's very nice, and I hope that the above at least makes for a reminder or guideline towards how single target(like) powers need quite a bit of oomph to them, if they are to feel sufficiently impactful. Here is Soul Beam, where it currently is, with perhaps a lacking rank-up visual:

Soul Beam:

I recognize that the runes swirling around your hand aren't quite portrayed in this screencap, which is a shame as they already look quite cool. The power itself however, needs a large amount of added visuals, with perhaps some effects streaming along the outer edges of the laser, visuals more akin to the non-runic glow that Eldritch Blast has (ghostly wispy effect), or just something. The more I look at it, the more I decide that this has to be a a rank 1 visual.

Up next, I found some powers that are somewhat similar to Star Barrage. I realize that Star Barrage is a bit of an odd one out, being more similar to TK Assault with the AoE advantage, or perhaps Micro Munitions. With that I mean that the area of effect is a little smaller than the powers I present below, as Star Barrage is a 10 foot sphere and the others are 15 foot spheres. However, I still believe that my upcoming points are somewhat unaffected, if not at least somewhat (I hope).

Lightning Storm:

More or less succeeds the same way Lightning Arc does, by being large, bright, scary and dangerous. It's a big AoE, so the FX are sufficiently big (if not bigger than the AoE itself).

Avalanche:

Avalanche is absolutely ridiculous, camera (if enabled) shaking intensely throughout the maintain, as massive shards of ice destroy everything below, causing violent explosions of cold.

Conflagration:

I will actually say that I wish Conflagration was more akin to Avalanche when at rank 3. I can't complain too much, as I can cause actual fire rain, but this power is actually an example of slightly underwhelming (though perhaps intense) visuals.

Then we move onto Star Barrage itself, the source of this post and my gripes with where it currently stands as a ranged AoE attack.

Star Barrage:

Now, the power has a really cool starting point, firing floating specks of light at the enemy which explode in a radial. However, there is a problem with the delivery, I feel. See the stars? They're surprisingly enough not that bright, being stars. I have more or less concluded in my own right that they need a center that is more or less completely white, with the actual colors fading outwards. And y'know, with stars being what they are, maybe even give the stars a tiny flare following them? They need to feel brighter, is what I'm trying to get across here.

The other currentl problem, is that the power almost looks like a cylinder AoE due to how weak the actual point of impact looks. There are some weak explosions there in a color of your choosing, that are not nearly bright enough. I expect scattering sparkles and visuals that give me the impression that stars are exploding. miniature stars are currently exploding in a cluster. It would benefit from some added white, just like the stars would, as well as some + or x shaped flares of light scattering around the explosions, adding to the spectacle.

It's just not powerful enough, it looks weak and therefore it will feel weak, regardless how technically powerful/weak it might be when released.

Please consider some further tweaks? And I know that these images don't address how animations make the visuals feel, but I at least don't feel like it causes a too large gap from what is presented here.

Have a good one, sorry for creating yet another large post.

It's a habit.

spinnytop · September 2016

I agree. Both Star Barrage and Soul Beam need more sparklepony. Star Barrage still seams rather dim... at the very least crank up the brightness and slather on some bloom. Soul Beam needs something to thicken it.

avianos · September 2016

+1 For more INTENSE Star Barrage Visuals

The visuals don't feel as powerful as they should be for rank 3 >_>

theravenforce · October 2016

I have to agree with meeoeoowie's post on the visuals of the new powers...they look like Rank 1 versions!

We all know the Dev team can make incredibly pretty powers (*bats eyes at Splosions*), so please make these new abilities look more intense!

FC.31.20160729.8 - Power Changes/New Powers Feedback

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