Request for Atomic Rebalancing 2021

Background


First of all Hello, you can find me on the US Server on my character ''Dps''. I am a veteran player with years worth of experience starting from 2011. I switched to Atomic the moment it came out and fell in love with the combo powers and new animations. Once Stats Revamp and artifacts came out, I've noticed just how weak the atomic powerset was compared to other powersets at the highest level of damage output. I have tried many different variations but the overall damage is still lackluster and its obvious that Atomic received the short end of the stick. Note: This is intended to address issues on the absolute highest degree of gameplay in end game content.

Goals

• Bring attention to the damage side of Atomic
• LIst the Identity Atomic once had
• State the various issues wrong with Atomic
• Provide solutions for those very same issues
• Provide proof of Atomic in action from Pre Stats Revamp aswell as after Stats Revamp

Atomic Pre Stats Revamp

Atomic before Stats Revamp was one of the best times I had playing DCUO. The Identity of Atomic was not to have 1 cookie cutter loadout that would work the majority of the time. Instead there were 3 intended playstayles to use and cycle in between depending on the fight. I will classify these 3 playstayles as Atomic Combo, Advanced Mechanic, and Weapon Clip Hybrid.

Atomic Combo
Atomic Combos revolve around the Quark-Gluon Aura. Once the Aura is activated, all of the damage from your Atomic Combos is amplified as a special power interaction. Before Stats Revamp, this Aura gave a Critical Damage Buff and Might buff. The lack of damage over time abilities in the Atomic powerset meant you had to find other means to get the most reliable damage to multiple enemies all at once, For Atomic, the answer to this problem was Atomic Combos. Every Atomic Combo has its base form with 2 extra combos that can branch off of it. However at this time, every tick of damage from the Atomic Combos was the same. So think of each combo as 3 seperate hits of damage that are relatively the same ( 1x 1x 1x), people like myself would use this to our advantage because it incentivized clipping. I would cycle between 3 seperate abilities while only using the first combo of each ability. For example, the animation for doing an entire Atomic Combo would be a loss in overall damage so instead I cut the combo short and Immediately clip into another power so that the damage comes out much faster.


Advanced Mechanic
During this time, Advanced Mechanic for Atomic came in the form of close range and long range. In both instances, you would have to use the base form of 3 abilites ( without any combos) followed by a power that is amplified from those powers used beforehand. For example, most commonly called 1 2 3 4, you would use 3 abilities followed by either Geiger Blast ( close range) or Geiger Beam ( long range) for a massive hit of damage. This differs from combos because it is less maintenance and would ultimately do more damage in the long run. I was able to find a clip with a power called Density. Density is the shield for Atomic and at the time, it would have you "change form" into metal ( similar to transforming into a flash costume in the Centrial City Trinket) during the animation of Density if you clipped it with a power it would completely cancel the animation and let you immediately let you use another power. However this only worked twice, ( once you activated Density and after it wore off). I am the original founder of this superclip which was ultimately removed later on as people complained that Density and Mass Density were causing lag in game which caused a "fix" to this ability causing you to no longer cancel the animation of any power used beforehand.


Weapon Clip Hybrid

The last playstyle for Atomic is what I like to call the "Weapon Clip Hybrid". Every single powerset can use this and it is basically clippling a weapon combo with an ability. This form of damage dealing is extremely outdated and is only really viable in PVP. There is not much to say about this playstyle other than it is the barebones way of doing damage.

Atomic Post Stats Revamp

Atomic after Stats Revamp has been brutal to say the least. With other powers getting buffed, its no doubt that Atomic got left out. Below I state Atomic ,today, in its current state.

Background
Stats revamp ruined Atomic plain and simple. I understand Advanced Mechanic was boring and I actually support the removal of it because it doesnt incorporate anything fundamental. However, there are some things that should never have been removed.

Changes to Atomic Post Stats Revamp

• Atom-Powered Assault no longers grants might ticks of damage
• Quark-Gluon Aura no longer gives a Critical Attack damage and Might buff
• Geiger Blast hit range has been decreased to an absurdly small radius
• Geiger Beam no longer has 2 ticks of damage ( first tick is small while the last tick is big)
• Beta Surge can no longer hit enemies at max range
• Damage progression of Atomic Combos have been changed from ( 1x 1x 1x) to ( 1x 0.5x 1.25x)
• Unleash Antimatter is no longer an immunity and is now converted into a supercharge generator that hits less than Batarang from the Iconic Tree
• Density form has been changed and can no longer be used to clip powers animations as before

Input
These are only a handful of the changes made to Atomic. The changes I listed above represent the things I wish were reverted entirely. There is absolutely no reason why Atomic got this kind of treatment considering the absolutely bloated powers in the current state of this game.

Issues with Atomic

Background

With the history of Atomic mentioned above, we can finally go deeper into the main issues with the Atomic powerset. Below I will list all the problems with Atomic aswell as solutions for those same problems.

Problems

• Supercharges are extremely lackluster
• No reliable damage over time abilities
• No single target Atomic Combo
• Atomic Combos are slow
• No reliable power to activate Quark-Gluon Aura
• Quark-Gluon Aura is very underwhelming
• Small miscellaneous problems

Supercharges are extremely lackluster
Every single Atomic supercharge besides Mass Density is lackluster. Atomic Blast is a 5000 supercharge that does damage to enemies in a cone. Atomic Blast is only good if you are able to crit with it so instead I'd like to see it get replaced with some kind of amplification like circuit breaker or berserk. Also the animation for Atomic Blast is very long and should be sped up by a bit. It can be changed to increase all damage from Atomic combo powers for a short amount of time. Energize is only of the most underwhelming supercharged in the whole game. Energize is a 5000 supercharge that provides a heal and activates your aura. This supercharge is decent but it needs to be changed to a 2500 supercharge and should provide some damage absorption for tanks instead of granting a heal. Radiation Burn is a 10000 supercharge that does a big hit of damage followed by a damage over time. This supercharge is perfectly fine but should be tuned up in its damage. Other 10000 superchagers like Oblivion and Biggun can crit for 1 million while Radiation Burn cannot.

No Reliable damage over time abilities

Google describes "Reliable" as consistently good in quality and performance. Atomic has 2 dots. Irradiate which is a younger brother of Electric's "Tesla Ball". Irradiate and Tesla Ball are both dots that deal 6 hits. However Tesla Ball has an accelerated back mod, generates an absurd amount of supercharge per cast, and hits multiple targets. Irradiate not only does piss poor damage but it also doesnt have the qualities that its big brother (Tesla Ball) has. Atomic's second dot is Electron Flare. Electron Flare is a perfectly fine ability. It is perfect for melee and activates your aura. There needs to be a ranged dot for atomic. It is the only power in the game without a reliable ranged dot and that in itself is absolutely detrimental for passive damage while you do your rotation but Atomic is the only power that doesnt have one. Irradiate in its base form should be kept the same however it should be changed into a 12 second dot with 12 separate hits of damage just like electrogenesis. Ionizing Eruption is redundant because Radiation Shower does the exact same thing. Change Ionizing Eruption to a 6 second dot with 6 ticks of damage to all enemies around the first target afflicted.

No Single Target Atomic Combo
Atomic Combos make Atomic what it is. However, Beta Surge, Neutron Bomb, and Nuclear Burst all do the same thing. They are all ranged combos. Currently there is no reason to choose Beta Surge over Nuclear Burst. Nuclear Burst can atleast hit targets at max range but besides that they are a reskin of the same power. Neutron Bomb atleast does more damage than the other two. I suggest making Beta Surge only hit one target and allowing it to hit at max range. This will help the single target damage from Atomic greatly and will give more variation between which abilities you choose to use.

Atomic Combos are Slow
The Atomic Combos in their current state are slow and clunky. I suggest keeping the speed and adjusting the damage that each combo does. Before Stats Revamp each tick of damage from an Atomic Combo had the damage progression of ( 1x 1x 1x) but Post Stats Revamp this was changed to about ( 0.75x 0.5x 1.5x). Revert these changes or speed up the animation of the combo powers. There needs to be an incentive to use them because right now they dont feel smooth at all.

No Reliable Power to Activate Quark-Gluon Aura
Atomic falls in a weird spot because you need to sacrifice an ability spot in your loadout for the ability that grants you the Aura Shortcut. There are 4 abilities that can grant you an Aura shortcut and they are Proton Remedy, Neutrino Blast, Electron Flare, and Atom-Powered Assault. Proton Remedy and Neutrino blast are for tanking so they both are both non factors for dps. Electron flare is good but it only does damage to enemies at close range. This leaves us with Atom-Powered Assault. Atom-Powered Assault is the weapon buff for Atomic and thats it. For a might dps, using this for just an Aura shortcut is a massive waste of potential because you are sacrificing an ability in your loadout. I suggest reverting Atom-Powered Assault to before Stats Revamp when it used to provide 3 ticks of might damage as you continually damage an enemy. This is perfect because even though you dont benefit from the precision, ateast you benefit from the might ticks and vise versa.

Quark-Gluon Aura is underwhelming
For a Dps, the only thing that the Aura does is slightly increase the damage from your Atomic Combos. The fact that you have to sacrifice an ability slot in your loadout just to get an aura that barely does anything is terrible to say the least. I suggest reverting the changes made to the aura before Stats Revamp. Bring back the critical damage buff and might buff that you got from the Aura itself.

Small Miscellaneous Problems
The equipment mods for Atomic are useless. Remove the current Accelerated Back Mod options to Atomic powers that can actually be used in a proper damage loadout (Currently Neutrino Blast and Proton Remedy, Switch to Thermochemical explosion or Beta Surge). Remove the current Restorative Leg Mod options to Atomic powers that can actually be used in a proper damage loadout (Currently Electon Flare and Fracture, Switch to Neutron Bomb or Nuclear Blast).

Past Conversations with Batuba

Over the past year, I have been messaging Batuba on the problems I found with Atomic. He seemed interested in balancing all the powers in DCUO and unfortunately with him no longer working on the game I hope we can still follow through with what he wanted for the game.

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Your friendly neighborhood Atomic Dps, Toxic DIsaster

While I absolutely agree with a lot in this post. when they did the revamp the thing that killed it the most from me was the speed reduction in the combos. it got much slower and just didn't feel the same any longer, all the smooth butteriness went away. seeing as for years I only played it as a full tank or battle tank I can't speak much for the straight DPS of the power. I almost never went straight DPS with it. losing the might and crit buff on the aura along with the slow down of combos is what made me leave what once was my Favorite power that was ever added to the game. To then goto water which is great, but its not the OG Atomic in my heart

Yea I stayed Atomic for many years and I agree some things should never have been removed. I assume they were scared that the power could have been overtuned but it wasn't and now we're left with a shell of a power.

Hello, before starting I want you to know that I do not speak for everyone, and the following ideas are based on my experiences.
(I'm just going to talk about the Tank, I hope you don't mind Toxic.)

On the tank side, it would be nice if the combos were a bit faster,

or boost the% of healing for each combo,

or apply a big hot for a short time after a successful combo

or apply increased aura absorption for X seconds after a successful combo

I know this may be too OP, but the risk / reward ratio does not apply as well in elite instances as some other powers.

We need to do combos to heal ourselves, which are highly interruptible, on bosses it is hardly worth using them other than to keep the aura fresh.

It seems that the mechanism developed in the atomic tanks is the least suitable for elite raids.

1- The atomic suffers a lot of loss of mobility every time he needs to refresh his aura and this is already a great risk !!!
No other tank loses its mobility due to its mechanism.

2-To heal we only have 1 useful power, proton remedy, since the neutrino blast is not so beneficial compared to this one.
On the other hand, there is another tank that has a lot of powers to heal, including a bonus on incoming heals. Then there are others that simply heal with a single button, automatically and without losing mobility, although it does have a great risk but this risk is proportionally rewarded.

3-List of mechanisms developed and their viability.

Rage: auto heal - fully viable on elites.

Fire: Double health, many heals, and incoming heal buff - fully viable on elites.

Ice: shields and shields. fully viable in most elites.

Earth: it has 2 different mechanisms, the pet that absorbs 2/3 of the damage, plus a super strong shield, and the other mechanism that increases its defense, which is very good to mitigate the damage that the shield has. fully viable on elites

Atomic: Hit the floor while praying that you don't break the combo to keep your aura. I think it is about 2 seconds where we are static and highly vulnerable.
I also want to mention that we have the best pull and the infinite juggle. But I would change both powers for normal ones and have a better reward in terms of the mechanism developed.
For now, it does not reach the same viability as the rest.

Does anyone see it in a similar way?

I haven't even mentioned any of the issues from the tanking aspect of Atomic. I would have to make an entirely new thread, but yes I agree entirely. The Aura is high maintenance and its another one of those things you have to keep in mind while you try to multitask throughout the raid and prioritize what to do at certain times. Certain raid mechanics require you to stop for a moment which will drop your Aura and overall feels like a liability rather than an asset.