Work In Progress: Hard Light Balance - Updated

For sure, I'm just super excited that we got a dev response, I don't want to push my luck, lol

This is something that happens with other powers and not just light. I have seen the no damage from quantum as well. I posted a thread in arkham about it.

no the pi thing was stupid. it took away from the uniqueness of HL to make everything in this game the same. and i agree with your last comment. another reason why i hated the dazed PI. it didn't even make sense for something that instills fear (or will?) to have a "dazing" effect like earth. it should be a light glow of some sort if we are going to have a pi, or even terror.

Nope. Always use the shield.

wow can't even say an honest truth without getting downvoted in here? bunch of jealous underwhelming powersets in this thread...

The Dazed PI last for 10 seconds and will show in wave's coming off the enemies head. It does get kinda hard to see but anyone effected by your power cast should have the PI applied(if they have chompers around them or spikes hit their feet).

It should last 15 like the other power sets and we should have more ways to apply the PI. Impact, Ram, Light Blast are all powers that currently don't interact with dazed at all. They would be good additions to chompers and spike as powers that applied the dazing effect. Mini Guns should get the does more damage to dazed targets since it does horrible damage for the time it takes to get off. Inspiration would be another good option for an applicator(sort of like how warped reality or menace can interact with their powers PI).

Theirs more that I still think needs to be addressed but its late and I don't want to make a really long post. Triage will still need to be improved to be worth using(or some form of mitigation for pick ups). Whip and Light Weight both should have the power cast no longer vulnerable to block. Impact should combo from Light Blast. Ram should combo from Fan. Ram>Whip, Ram>Snap, Snap>Light Blast, G Hand>Light Blast all should be brought down to the lowest baseline speed which would help them feel fluid again.

Anyways, that's it that I can think of for now. Please try to include these in the upcoming changes(GU 38). The powerset as a whole feels unpolished and it'd be nice if it felt complete.

I think triage should just be another shield. In pvp, shields are what help trolls survive and HL is lacking in that department.

I couldn't agree more. What's worse is our power set is the most melee oriented design of all the troller class powers with the least damage mitigation. We are by definition a "glass cannon".

Just downloaded about 2gb+ update on Testserver. Unfortunally its still down for maintenance.

I hope Inspire wont be placed at Triage's position like it was first announced.
There just wont be any way to spec it without overcommitting power points. I might end up not using Inspire at all, the way my dps is specced now Ill have to drop either SnapTrap or GraspingHand or one of the Iconic innates.

Hard Light has always been promoted as risk vs reward power set. I understand why you wanna go the safe route with another shield but I dont think thats in store for our power set. I bet developers intend to keep Triage healing based.

Self healing based on damage is the new rage (pun intended^^).
Look at Celestial and Rage, both have self healing abilities based on damage which are way more rewarding if u menage to do some damage without getting stunned or countered. I think this would fit to HardLight as well.

As a final tier power, Triage surely needs to more.

After everything said, Id be happy if Triage turns into a normal shield with pushback CC effect like Electricity's Flux, too.

I'm having issues getting a reliable crit from spikequake with weapon mastery. Currently, when I use a WM combo with chompers it always crits. For whatever reason, when I use spikequake half the time it doesn't crit. The combat tab is showing that it isn't a critical hit, but I see the red circle animation showing I timed the combo correctly. Anyone else having this problem?

That's is what I'd like to see. Honestly if triage stays as a heal, nobody will use it unless it heals a NICE amount of health. However if triage turned into a shield, many more people would be happy. It isn't very effective for a DPS or Controller to have a self heal. However a DPS AND a Controller would benefit from a self shield.

This has been like this since it came out. Overall ima say 2more things i want for this update n that is can we have chompers n spikequake to have different anmiations now since chompers is being changed. Most likely you'll have both in your loadout after this update n they both shouldn't have ur character throw his arm up in the same rotation. Maybe make one of them have dwn draft animation which i think is the same as ice bash. Also I want this the most-For drenz to be light on his main for a week so we can actually have a dev behind us for once. Also i want drenz cuz he/she was number one in dmg on the scorecard in survival mode. Looked like he/she was gadget n I always look n i never see a dev as light! Your gettin called out but i dnt think you can beat tunso as light.

I read on here a quote but can't recall who that stated the reason Earth, Electricity and Light we're receiving their revamps first was to ensure their "awesome mechanic" was functioning as intended and the power set worked well. The other powers would then receive their "awesome mechanic" and each should be in line with the dev's future plan for the game and power sets.

I don't want this to seem like I'm bashing our design team. I think they've done a good job getting things close as their able to without making anything drastically OP(risk vs reward).

However our "awesome mechanic" is infinite combo loops. This needs to be addressed along with some of the power flaws that are out there. Their is no way to maximize what we're doing with infinite loops anymore(if their was). We are now dependant on a PI that doesn't last as long as it should and have only 2 powers(might based/no combo) that can be used to apply it(which are all in the same tree). Tied in with that is our vulnerability to being countered(which is a problem whether its a power cast or combo). This is more of an issue post GU 36 due largely in part to the speed at which our attacks now occur.

Please go through and take a hard look at the speeds and counter mechanics to the combo type abilities. Ram>Whip, Ram>Snap, Snap>Light Blast, G Hand>Light Blast all take what feels like to long too get off. I know we need to fit in with the new animation time rules but perhaps you can either increase the speed to some of these or adjust the vulnerabilities to counter. Especially power cast types. This will all need to fit in with PvP and that's why I'm trying to be somewhat vague in how things should be changed. I trust the design team to do the right thing and make a good choice to fix this for players. Our "awesome mechanic" is awesome but its not living up to its intention.

To go with everything in this post the following should be included in the GU 38 changes.

*Impact, Ram, Light Blast, Inspiration all apply the Dazed PI. Giving players the tools they need to keep the Dazed PI up.

* Mini Guns will capitalize on the Dazed PI. It's ticks are slower and very small

*Impact Combo's from Light Blast, Ram Combo's from Fan giving more range options and being able to disguise/mix it up when going from power to power cast in PvP. This would help with the counter mechanics giving us two abilities that can be used and are vulnerable to different types of counters coming out of Fan/Light Blast.

*Whip and Light Weight are no longer vulnerable to block when cast from power. Construct Combo's would then still be vulnerable since their basically weapon attacks.

*Fan's AoE Cone gets adjusted. This power isn't hitting as many targets as it should post GU 36, this should be adjusted.

*I'll bite my tongue on Triage from here on out til I've gotten a chance to use it but would still like if it had a short 3 second shield(even if it reduce's the heal amount) because as a controller or DPS I'm more concerned with pick ups than need health regen.

I'm very excited for GU 38 it looks to have a good deal of many things coming and I'm interested in the changes but in order for our "awesome mechanic" to be awesome we need more PI applicators and options from Light Blast/Fan. Along with a good look at our vulnerability times to counter mechanics. Their are few small little tweaks that should get worked in there.

Hmm....the 'awesome mechanic' for HL is supposed to be the 'infinite combos' right? Well....with the changes made to this powerset with GU36 and all the animation and dove-tail rubbish HL does NOT have an 'awesome mechanic' anymore. Now add this to the fact we have TWO measly moves to apply our Dazed PI and the dps side of the powerset has huuuuge problems. And no I am still not happy with the controller side of the powerset either.

Now as a HL dps I never chain any combos anymore, so where is the 'awesome mechanic?' I really hope the devs have something up their sleeves, as the proposed changes to the controller side (with regards to Impact as the ranged pot and Light Blast becoming the defence debuff) are all well and good....but there are still some small changes that need to be made.

Our combo's are slow and cumbersome, oh and what makes it worse is that we get blocked (Whip) quite a lot. Whip should no longer be vulnerable to block. And for the love of this powerset REMOVE Triage completely. Even with the proposed change to it with GU38 no-one will use it. There is absolutely no need for us to have it on our loadout unless it replenishes our health by 50% or more, AND even then its useless as a healer will burst heal me within a matter of seconds so again...why waste a power point and load-out slot!?

Triage should be replaced by a 'HL construct pet' (just like Amon Sur's). Now as a Green Lantern/Sinestro Corp member I am able to create anything with my imagination...correct? Well....a construct pet fits in perfectly with the theme of the powerset. This pet would attack and give power back to its user and the group/lowest 3 members.

I appreciate the changes already posted in this thread to come with GU38 but...you need to take a closer look at HL as this powerset is down in the dull-drums at the moment.