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Backup Device Duration

phasestarphasestar Posts: 127 Arc User
in Suggestions Box
I'd like to see the Backup Devices made more useful. The 15 second duration is typically only for part of one fight, which doesn't make much sense in terms of utility or theme/story. I'd rather see these limited to one mission, so that it's more like the occasional help you get on Unity missions, or 1 minute, whichever applies better in the current circumstance. At least that would feel like a decent bit of backup.

Comments

  • jaazaniah1jaazaniah1 Posts: 5,556 Arc User
    Personally, I just find the current mechanic ridiculous. Where in the comic books does one hero call in another hero for help, and then the other hero only sticks around for 15 seconds. Just silly.​​
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    Perseus, Captain Arcane, Tectonic Knight, Pankration, Siberiad, Sekhmet, Black Seraph, Clockwork
    Project Attalus: Saving the world so you don't have to!
  • thisiscraftaaathisiscraftaaa Posts: 252 Arc User
    Backups used to be much better, with each one doing an obscene amount of damage, if I recall correctly the low hundreds of thousands, before disappearing. They were effectively single-target nukes that could be used to skip annoying bosses in various instances and story segments, and take a big chunk off the health of various soft targets like Anniversary Mega-Destroids.

    They were nerfed for two reasons. The PvPers of the time complained that such devices were effectively a meta for singular duels (not like other devices aren't a mandatory meta anyways, but this is CO, if you as any player regardless of your niche don't complain about something you don't like being too good you're not doing it right, and I as a modern PvEer have my own complaints about current meta devices that don't really need nerfs as well) and secondly, there was the fact that CO players on the PvE side of things were markedly more casual back then, and a lack of thought was the only thing keeping them from obliterating any and all content with tanky single target bosses by just having every player in the instance hurl a Backup at it. Honestly, old pre-nerf Backups would solo current TT by virtue of the ridiculous amount of damage they'd pour out; just have the healer run AoAC to reduce cooldown times so that they're all back up going from one boss to the next.

    And so the nerf that hit them... well, honestly, I'd say it was deserved, even if they were complained about for the wrong reasons. But that nerf only winds up highlighting the issue of Backups as devices: either they do so much damage that they earn their cooldown, but wind up being boss-instakilling, DPS-check-skipping monsters, or they do so little damage that they just kind-of exist and waste a slot in your device tray, overshadowed by much more reasonable Loyal Sidekicks (which are the same thing, but 15 minutes up instead of 15 seconds up,) which is where they're at now.

    I know I'm in the camp of Backup devices just being changed to function identically to Loyal Sidekicks. It seems the fairest way to actually make them useful. They're worthless as they are, while their pre-nerf forms were so brutally strong that if reverted to that it'd allow for a LOT of content skipping. But Loyal Sidekicks are still weak in and of themselves too, simply because everything you'd need them for has an endless battery of 100'-200' or room-wide scripted one-shot-if-not-block petwipers, "DoT that does a small amount of damage to you but instantly kills pets no matter what" effects and the likes, so... it's not an easy issue to resolve.
    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
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  • phasestarphasestar Posts: 127 Arc User
    thisiscraftaaa wrote: »
    I know I'm in the camp of Backup devices just being changed to function identically to Loyal Sidekicks. It seems the fairest way to actually make them useful. They're worthless as they are, while their pre-nerf forms were so brutally strong that if reverted to that it'd allow for a LOT of content skipping. But Loyal Sidekicks are still weak in and of themselves too, simply because everything you'd need them for has an endless battery of 100'-200' or room-wide scripted one-shot-if-not-block petwipers, "DoT that does a small amount of damage to you but instantly kills pets no matter what" effects and the likes, so... it's not an easy issue to resolve.

    Thanks for that explanation. I forgot what they were like in the past and agree they got over-nerfed. They're really just effectively useless and not worth a device slot now, so hopefully they'll get another look. Since they generally represent another famous hero of some kind helping you, I don't think they need to be as long in duration as a loyal sidekick, but 15 seconds is just too short. I'd say 1-2 minutes and let them be a bit stronger than a sidekick.

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