Work In Progress: Hard Light Balance - Updated

Sorry for the confusion was simply using your statement as a point of reference towards the risk vs reward idea.

Like usual I like all your idea's. Intimidation stunning AoE is awesome for gadgets. I do wanna say I don't think asking for the counter to be removed from Whip overall would really be unfair. It gives Light a slightly unbalanced advantage with the counter system in PvP. If we start getting into that then we could make the point for all the counters to be removed and No Weapon combo ing becomes the FOTM PvP way of playing. It would allow us to bypass that mechanic that most other powersets have to deal with.

I do however think the power cast counter needs to go away. It hinders use of an already dangerous power for a controller to use as a debuff. It has great combo capabilities but I stay away from it unless I'm in old easy content because of the counter and fear of one shots. Most DPS will simply clip it and move on. However that doesn't work if their countered but that's risk vs reward. It is good DPS when Combo'd into groups. GU 36 will change some of that.

Currently it has a little too long of a dove tail. That dove tail is the only one being shortened for Light according to the patch notes. Even with it shortened I'd like to see it pop a 3 second shield(could look like green lantern armor or HL shield, Light Barrier etc). But should grant a secondary tool since it has such risk. The next update will hurt the damage output as well since splitting will occur earlier than before. The damage has been adjusted but again I think the risk is a little too high.

Many players want more ways to mitigate damage that would be one. I initially liked your idea of making shielding interact with empowered channeling(removing chance to break). I think if that move is going to stay then thats fine but would prefer a different power. It just doesn't fit to me. It's a very cool idea and power but being rooted and unable to attack or do anything but shield just doesn't fit into the game play I see 99% of the time. I'd rather have a attack that pops a short shield(allowing you to move still and another usable while controlled option). That's just me though.

Your right on with Light Blast, Mini Gun and Whips power cast damage. All low. I think Whips getting increased and will interact with PI. I'd like to see Light Blast animation shortened to fit DPS playstyle better and overall power set feel. Maybe it could interact with Dazed PI too. Mini Gun could use a slight boost but I don't know again probably the PI.

I like the suggestions Massah. You have a pretty good idea of what seems reasonable and easy to tweak. Keep it coming maybe some time soon we'll get confirmation of what changes they may do next

Entrap and Lightweight should combo with each other so Entrap melee bat swings or Range to throw a Lightweight

Lightweight- Range throws Lightweight after spin or melee tap for Bat Swings

Bat Swings are awesome just not viable with Entrap being Vulnerable to Interrupt.

Lightweight and Chainsaw are just Weak.

I do not know what can be done to fix Lightweight... At a loss

Chainsaw needs a buff.
Personally - I think it should hit twice for every melee tap
This would allow it to be viable for combo building especially with Impact->Chainsaw->Ram->Whip Thrash

I think if Chainsaw's Damage was applied 2 or 3 times per melee swing the damage would be on-line with the power cost and Tier level. Currently it is hitting to soft - my opinion is it is hitting for 1/2 the damage it should be doing on Live when compared to Claws.

If it hit twice per melee swing so that Chainsaw x5 would be 10hit combo - this would make it a valuable and viable Final Tier Melee move. Two Chainsaw Melee taps would be about the same animation length as Whip Thrash. If Damage was just doubled without an additional hit counter the attacks would still be too slow. But since a Chainsaw is a moving Blade it would make sense logically if each swing attacked 2 or more times. For Blanace I was thinking 2 hits (each the size of what a Single hit on love is doing - so damage is doubled from Live and hit counter for combo is also doubled)

If Base attack was changed to above ....Dazed PI could be a 3rd hit per swing or that a 3rd hit per swing can be activated with Hold melee (Threaten)

(With Chainsaw at 2hits per swing)
Impact->Chainsaw once->Ram->Whip Thrash (Would be a 9 hit combo and this combo can be infinitely looped in this order)


Back to "Construct Empowerment" - I would be happy if instead of a stun Proc on weapon/Construct attacks - if the move would only allow Construct Minigun/Grasping Hand/Snap Trap/Light Blast/Whip Thrash/Fan to have full duration Stun. These are the powers that have Stun in the normal Description (not Controller role only stun) Most of these attacks have PvP counters associated with them so there is a decent Riskvs.Reward Balance.(This would be more fitting for the name "Construct Empowerment")

Cut it down to the one I'd like to reply to. Maybe instead of changing the animation change how it works. You see Lanterns in movies and cartoons using hands, fist, and boxing gloves from a distance so why not take out the lunge and leave the animation as it is. Kinda would work like your character would still punch and the gloves would appear near the target but your character doesnt actually jump over to them. Kinda like shadow boxing in the movie Real Steel at the end.

I like that too. Long as they make it or Claws affect multiple enemies. If we look at any of the other power sets each PoT has a multiple and a single target CC from the PoT power. Except Light. So I'd be fine with removing the lunge and having it knock down and stun 2-3 enemies in the area. Something should be done though. Thanks for the input, I think that's a fair and good suggestion as well.

Thanks. Also kinda like to toss out idea on Chainsaw having damage increase with every hit. Right now best use for it is hit once and then go to your weapons attack for the 50 percent bonus.

That's not even really a use for it since snap trap and fan get you the modifier but cone out faster, plus they have more useful moves on the way down the tree. Therefore it's a useless move, only thing in that tree that's worse than chain saw is light weight, that move is beyond useless.

Also keep in mind that chainsaw has the highest power cost out of all the HL moves

Really hope they fix those two moves on the assault tree, they are fun to use but useless

Also to add, chain saw has terrible range that is not represented by the animation, you can be hitting them with about half the chainsaw and it still won't hit, you need to be literally in their face

#fixchainsaw

Its already been mentioned,

I would like to see the dazed pi changed to willfull and fearfull pi. .

Willfull/Feared PI is a team buff for caster and three others granting a 10 to 15 % health buff (surviveability light is as melee as rage without the surviveability bonuses) and damage buff on constructs that benefit from the dazed pi currently.

It would also be nice light weight to get a combo mechanic, hold melee after throwing the first one to generate another light weight (still subject to block) just as an idea or tap meleee 3x to use it as three overhead melee attacks and can still throw it after last melee hit or add melee damage mitigation to light weight like it has the possibility of deflectting ranged atttacks (im trying to think of idea that give a little surviveability without being OP)

Althoug i really like the idea of being able to beat an enemy over the head with a construct light weight.

edit; on the list of really cool but wont happen, after youtap triangle to throw light weight tapping melee up to 3x causes your ring to control the construct and smash it on top of your opponent, epic......sigh now im sad

I know I've posted this repeatedly but I'd really like to see a weapon buff added. I would like it added to the support tree so that their is a PI ability in that tree. Having all the PI inflicting abilities in one tree(two that aren't a SC) is fairly irritating. In addition, Chompers is a better spreader but a less useful form of CC.

Chompers will spread dazed to more enemies but also panics which can be irritating for DPS and Tanks. Spike Quake is a better control effect but has to small of a CC to be of really good use. Personally I like Spike Quake but think it should effect up to 4 enemies. That would help quite a bit with CC and inflicting the Dazed PI for ourselves and other players.

I would like to see either as Massah has suggested and moving Spike to the support tree and it taking triage placement(Weapon buff would then take Spike's current spot in the assault tree). Or Moving Light Barrier to Triage placement and it receiving the final tier treatment and putting the weapon buff in Light Barrier's current placement.

The weapon buff should be utilized for clipping(as the others do)
either do a tick of precision damage(randomly up to 7) or raise precision by a % for the duration of its cooldown,
either apply a stun or increase duration of weapon/construct stuns,
and apply the dazed PI.

Being in the tier its in that seems like a fair amount of abilities for that placement. This will give the support tree a good PI starter. Putting it in the support tree will give DPS more of a reason to spec into the support tree. Making both trees more valuable overall.

We haven't seen anything new lately, also no new changes on the support side and still no news on gu36... I hoping for a pleasant surprise this week

Chainsaw should do 2 hits at once. That's the easiest and best buff I've heard. This will make chainsaw a more usable ability for controller use as well. Chainsaw building the hit counter will help controllers and it'll automatically do twice the damage it is currently. Which would be more appropriate with the risk of moving into melee and being a final tier power. As well as its power point cost with Spike being a weaker PI spreader(than chompers) and Light Weight being a dangerous and unworthy power to use.

The double hits will up the damage for DPS and help controllers using it to help with power regen.

Threaten should also apply the dazed PI.

Light Weight should have the counter to the power cast removed and the damage modifier increased to 45%.

My thoughts on Hard Light are as follows (Forgive me if any of this was covered already):

Hard Light DPS:

Hard Light DPSing needs Power Interactions. Now, the proposed Dazed interaction is a step in the right direction, but I feel it needs another PI or two for it to be on par with other controller based powers. (Gadgets and Mental have at minimum 3 PI interactions, and I believe Mental has 4 that cause damage ticks.)

Possible solutions:

Dazing effects are good for HL but it should also have a significant PI like Burning or Terrorize attributed to it as well.

For burning, one would simply switch Ballistic Assault (supercharge) with Chainsaw (50% move) and have Chainsaw act much like Mangle or Sinestro's blade does in A&B. Ballistic Assault would serve as an Inferno/Debris Field/Wintery Tempest/Galling Eruption type AOE move that would last for the duration of the cooldown. Then, all other constructs would play off of the burning interaction (i.e. "Burning enemies take extra damage from successful HL constructs") and with each combo made, an extra tick would be added to the damage during the PI.

Also, HL DPSing needs a move similar to Menace or Intimidation that adds another timed tick during its duration. Call the move "Enhanced Will" or "Unwavering Resolve" or something similar to that and have it work just like Menace or Intimidation and that would help the DPSing immensely. You can easily replace Triage or the stationary shield and re-arrange the Support tree for it to be in a similar spot as Menace or Intimidation.

Lastly, moves like Lightweight and Encase need to combo into and out of the other moves in the tree. It doesn't make sense that they don't.

Hard Light Controlling:

The only problem I have with Hard Light Controlling revolves around the Melee based POT moves Light Claws and Boxing Gloves. You can't lunge into a tank trying to keep aggro on a boss and not expect to get hit or knocked out. The solo shield helps but there should be at least one POT move that works at a distance, just for preference sake. Perhaps the solution is switching Impact with the Boxing gloves in the Support Tree or introducing a new construct altogether.

Also, a small nitpick: I think Recharge is a bit slower than the other instant power back moves. Mental's and Gadget's moves are quick. That might be because of the animation associated with them. But perhaps someone should make them all similar in timing.

Ram and all powers that combo should benefit from the dazed PI since combo powers don't apply the PI, they all should get something out of it. But especially Ram, since that's a staple move and does very low damage and requires you to be at melee range to get its max hits

Was about to change into HL but now, whats the point? =/

Regarding the speed of Recharge, yes at the moment on live servers it is the slowest power dump move out of the lot, seems to take forever to clip it with anything else.

Agreed on the pot move its ridiculous, a ranged pot has been asked for by the players for what seems like eons. As you and many, many others have mentioned...devs just make IMPACT the ranged pot move already! A reply on the pot move issue from the devs would be appreciated...but yeh the chances of that are non-existent....

If a ranged pot move is it not put in, you can always clip claws with recharge and your character will not lunge.

The problem I noticed especially when the group has low power is that without a range power over time move you may use claws or boxing, but not have enough power to clip with recharge. This also impedes on always having power over time up as you may wait for a better opportunity to cast it.

That is true. Maybe they could make boxing gloves not lunge but still do the same animation. So for those who like the gloves can keep it as a pot move without the risk of getting in the bosses face.

This has been discussed to death early in this thread. That shouldn't have to be your only option if you want to apply pot and not dive into a boss, and like the poster said above, you don't always have the power to clip pot with recharge. Also with the new dovetail times in gu36, even if clipped you will get somewhat of a lunge