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New, "double edged sword" abilities?
praxi5
Member Posts: 1,562 Arc User
What if we have new abilities (introduced via Lockbox, Specs, or mission rewards) that were "doubled edged swords"?
Something that buffs you, but also buffs your target? Or debuffs your target, but also hits you as well? To a lesser extent, obviously.
Maybe something like:
The precedent already exists in abilities like Re-route Power to Weapons (Pilot) and Re-route Power from Life Support (Command).
Without the downsides, they'd be OP; but due to the detractors, there's a downside and opportunity cost to using them. An overall DPS and/or tanking boost, but not "free."
Something that buffs you, but also buffs your target? Or debuffs your target, but also hits you as well? To a lesser extent, obviously.
Maybe something like:
- Massive CrtD boost to yourself, but reduces the Accuracy of your weapons (+Def to your target)
- Increasing Armor and/or Defense penetration against your target(s), but you lose Defense and/or DmgRes for each second you use it
- Large passive regen to yourself, but reduces your Def/Res at the same time
- Large ShieldRes boost, but reduces shield capacity
- Huge hull heal, but at the cost of a -HullCapacity debuff for 10-15 seconds
The precedent already exists in abilities like Re-route Power to Weapons (Pilot) and Re-route Power from Life Support (Command).
Without the downsides, they'd be OP; but due to the detractors, there's a downside and opportunity cost to using them. An overall DPS and/or tanking boost, but not "free."
Post edited by praxi5 on
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We already have some blueprint of it ingame, the Trait "Adrenal Release", giving +dmg and -res. You dont really want to get hit by a big attack from an enemy while using it^^
Reroute Power from Life Support: it's pretty much useless due to it's detrimental penalty
Needs of the Many: if not in a good coordinated team you're pretty much dead the moment you use it, kinda like the timeship's suicide console
Override Subsystem Safeties: HOLY POWERCREEP BATMAN! srsly, it one of the best things in the game and it's penalty is laughably weak.
Life Support: Yeah, it's useless, and the Devs have acknowledged that it is a flawed ability. The problem comes from the fact that it reduces your overall DPS, making it pointless to use.
Needs of the Many: Not familiar with that one.
OSS: Yeah, the downsides to using this one are slim - especially if you're using an all Human crew, have EngTeam, or have high system repair skilling.
Command boff ability:
Needs of the Many
Your current Shield Capacity is instantly set to zero. All teammates will, in return, gain an amount of Secondary Shielding that scales proportionately to the percentage of shields that were sacrificed.
Personally, an idea of what Extend Shields should have been, but taken way too far on both ends.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
That sounds pretty good, in theory - but I'm guessing the implementation didn't come through.
I also like the concept behind it but as you guessed it has close to no practical use.
Deliberately dropping your shields mid combat is pretty much asking to get a beating, especially with all the AoE spam some enemies constantly pull off.
The way powercreep is right now, folks will have ways of offsetting the penalties in a way that there is no penalty in practice, depending on what they're playing (PvE, PvP). E.g., even if you get an -Acc debuff, you might have just enough to warrant 100% hit chance in PvE.
Besides, this is very likely to be handled in the wrong way by the devs, considering their stance on balance right now.
STO Screenshot Archive
I was thinking that while this might lead to some power creep, it would be dampened compared to the power creep that we've had so far.
What we've gotten to this point is "free" boosts to everything from DPS to power management, with the relatively low cost of simply a console or trait slot.
With this, there would be some power creep, but also both reasons to use it and not use it at the same time; it won't become like Leech, where if you have access to it, you should 100% put it in your build without a second thought. You give up a paltry 1 console slot and gain SO much in return - from increased overcapping to more of a bonus from the Nukara Offense/Defense traits.
You'd have to think "Yeah I can use that, but should I always be using it?" It would further builds/could be used to base entire builds around, but wouldn't be an instant, mindless must have or use.
Agreed. Anything new added to the game can always be seen as power creep of some measure. So having some of the new abilities include trade-offs seems like one of the better ways to manage overall creep.
And yeah, some of the new spec abilities seem to be taking this into consideration, which is nice.