These are some of my ideas on Passives.

By nature of the game's design and atmosphere, all powers can potentially relate to any one character, and some people (like myself) can find it rewarding to realize many different concepts through different characters. I think this makes every single power widely applicable in significance, so that my view of even a few basic interactions seem to me like they can relate to all the Passive Powers, so I went through them and made commentary related to the interactions that occurred to me, for each.

This commentary is built on several premises, foremost that Passives can and should have a unique feel during gameplay, and that there are various distinct mechanics that I feel are not fully utilized, or utilized in an unclear manner, that can serve the underlying Passive role of survivability through mitigation, aiding allies, or increased DPS, in ways that could more strongly give unique feels to each Passive and provide more avenues for a Passive to succeed in what I perceive as its role and theme.

What I intend to do here is outline some thoughts on conceptualizations and changes, both minor and major, to the Offensive, Defensive, and Support Passives with these premises in mind, to hopefully provide a coherent description of the type and direction of implementation I hope could make some Passives more useful and successful, and those already quite useful, more interesting and varied in feel and application, in ways that make conceptual and gameplay sense.

I will note some elements of my implementation concepts upfront:

• I favor limiting powers by way of situational usage where those limitations make sense for the power, even if they are inconvenient, by themselves, to gameplay (to a certain degree). First of all, I feel that an environment of choice rewards users more, both in short and long term, if those choices have significance, and that making decisions on limitations in this regard leads to allowing the opportunity for focusing balancing efforts away from artificial limitations that might not make sense, since limitations that do make sense were in place. Second, I believe that situational limitations made with some level of consistent rationale outside of balance provide more opportunities for Powers to be made more powerful in their effect, while still maintaining a balanced environment, so I see no problem with adding even more situational limitations than might already exist or have been originally intended, as long as the collective limitations are not too crippling, and the resulting opportunities to avoid reducing a Power's effect or enhance a Power, for the sake of balance, will be taken.
• I believe that "on death" boosts to Health and Energy should be stackable, HoT effects, with the initial heal being significant and then trailing off to smaller tick value for a few seconds, since, in contrast to simply applying an effect to enemies and objects, they are the result of working your way through Hit Points and mitigations, and can't offer returns in a reliable manner. In challenging environments, they became significantly less functional for aiding survivability compared to the behavior from boost triggered by effect application, when that utility is most needed, and having them provide a benefit beyond the instant a kill happens, and making it stackable, provides something that still depends on defeating foes for performance, but can provide a reward in more situations by extending it beyond the moment of death.
• I feel that that there needs to be enhancement to the role of Melee in combat, in several ways, including an increase in the damage of some rapid attacks and a general ability to counter Avoidance and other Defensive abilities more readily than Ranged attacks, as well as more Stuns and unique DoT possibilities. In some select cases, some subsets of this type of improvement carries over to specific Ranged attacks where I think they make sense, and in association with specific Passives, and I will discuss them there.
• I don't think full effectiveness for all facets of a Passive should always come from the Framework associated stats, just a key aspect of performance offering benefit from at least one of them. I think having to manage more stats for enhanced effects to Passives in particular widens the possibilities of usage outside their Framework, and offers a built-in limitation to how additional facets manifest, a limitation that reaching higher levels allows you more flexibility to overcome, permitting present and future level caps and item improvements to offer significant returns on stat benefits, even as Soft and Hard Capped limits prevent "main" stat selections from offering as much return.

For this discussion, I will highlight mention of stats as STAT (with {} meaning something like "scaled by"), I will try to Capitalize commonly referenced terms and concepts I feel are of note, and a description of the "feel" I'm trying to capture will be highlighted like this for each Passive.

Hopefully, I don't go too far wrong in my understanding of existing mechanics, and that the type of interplay I envision between these factors is a workable possibility at some time in the future and as interesting to play as I hope. Of course, as a would-be game designer , I write with literal implementation in mind, but I don't think my hopes of at least clearly communicating why I think these implementations and mechanics are a good idea and that at least having some bearing as Powers, Frameworks, and Balance are implemented, in whatever manner, are unreasonable.

Offensive Passives (1/3) ...

I think Offensive Passives are generally useful and somewhat successful, though, as a rule, not as successful to apply to survivability as Defensive Passives. I think there are underutilized avenues to increasing survivability that are available besides simply increasing damage dealt, so my implementations explore other elements of combat when trying to outline a feel and successful implementation for these Passives.

I propose many ideas, though without direct insight into the particulars of underlying balance mechanics that are being considered as powers are modified, but I hope that I get across some specific ideas that can fit within those considerations, or at least suggest my desired direction for new implementations that do. There are constructs and flows in the landscape of Powers interaction that I try to shape out of the direct changes suggested, and I hope I succeed in at least the broad brushstrokes of outlining what that can offer.

One thing that goes with the idea of shaping the Power interaction landscape is a look at holds, usually tangible holds, to make sure that there are unique aspects to the health of specific holds that make sense for their theme and Framework, and provide an environment where some of the interactions with Passives I suggest are significant and interesting, while ensuring that the holds aren't made generally ineffective by them. Perhaps increase their base and/or maximum (ranked) health significantly, while at the same time increasing the number of powers that have a strategic role in breaking out of them faster.
Along with this, the possibility that sometime in the future, balancing environment allowing, a system that would allow further distinction of interactions with holds (i.e., a fire based counter would interact differently with metal in comparison to webbing or ice, and an ice based one interact differently with metal than magic) might be implemented to offer further uniqueness to the feel of some thematic interactions.

Also, I hope the listed resistance to "effects" for some of these Passives already consistently implements resistances to both damage and the applicable holds/snares/roots.

...


Electric Form
You feel dangerously volatile, reactive destruction coursing through and around your body.

Operating as it does now, but adding: A small random {REC} chance of spikes of significant damage {END} to tangible holds, and a slightly increased effect of damage when breaking out of intangible holds {END}, if Break Out damage isn't already boosted, and/or resistance to Stun.

Ionic Reverberation activation could trigger a very small heal, and perhaps aid in breaking out of intangible holds and Stun instead of the above.


Fiery Form
Your power is a persistent and hungry force of destruction, consuming whatever gets in its way.

In addition to the existing functionality: Steady medium damage {PRE} to tangible holds...what I picture is something more consistently and steadily reducing the time a tangible hold can be in effect with no other factors in play, not just a boost to Break Out damage which I am unsure if the current mechanics imlement.

Thermal Reverberation activation could trigger a very small heal.


Ice Form
Things around you are broken and pierced by your attacks, and a hard, brittle barrier encases you.

I think a significant enhancement {END} to damage dealt to tangible holds, more than the other Energy/Elemental Offensive Passives, makes sense for the feel of this Passive. Also, a mall boost to chance {DEX} for tangible holds/snares/roots to not apply to aid the encased/slippery feeling I think would fit..

If warranted to address survivability, very minor (on the scale of the Force EB Advantage) effect that has a small health {END}, provides an Avoidance type mitigation effect {DEX}, with frequency of reappearance/refresh being low {EGO}, perhaps only when fully ranked.


Quarry
You excel at hunting down prey, and slipping in and out of their perception to do so.

I think the defensive applicability of the healing advantage scaling off of kills, especially when not working with area attacks AFAIK, is limited, and that this is one place where the HoT effect I describe should be implemented.

The mitigation effect of the Framework Energy Builder Advantage seems to be considered effective, and seems like it can work to provide a Framework mitigation effect when used with this Passive, but I think a Stealth effect and/or independent additional Avoidance buff for the Passive would fit with the theme and enhance the feel of this Passive, including use outside its Framework.

Also, I think this is one possible place to add some interactions with Defensive mechanisms, by offering a significant reduction of dodge Avoidance to some attacks being made, and perhaps offer some interactions with some of my Bleeding suggestions.


Targeting Computer
Your weaponry systems continuously evaluate your targets as you first lock onto them, starting a countdown to unleash overwhelming force upon them as they evaluate how to best utilize your energy for their destruction.


With Power Armor's dependency on energy usage, I think the fundamental working of the power fits the unique feel the Framework succeeds in offering, though I'm not sure how well balanced the scaling of the energy return is in practice with its delay mechanic. It seems PA can do massive damage, but I'm unsure that this Offensive Passive in particular has a uniquely significant role to play in achieving that (as in, there are other ways to get the energy to feed attack powers), outside of its undocumented features mentioned below.

I think something that fits the theme of the power as working as always on, or at least enhancing the payoff after the lockon delay, without being as potentially unbalancing as some other mechanisms that might fit as well, like resistance debuff, is an increased critical hit chance {STR} added to the effect from DEX, or a decreased Avoidance chance {INT} for the target's defense.

The first gives a damage boost possibility that can be significant but not reliable, though scaling on a framework stat for severity instead of EGO could make it quite damaging (overpowered for the current PA damage output AFAICS, though).

The second gives this Passive a countering role in the Offensive/Defensive landscape, which perhaps could even extend to boosting secondary effects (aside from knockback) like stuns from damage dealing ranged attacks in general.

Given that there seem to be undocumented and significant benefits related to the passive (giving energy to party members and damage debuff), perhaps these changes should be offered as a 2 point advantage? These are not suggestions necessarily about this Passive being deficient in performance, more about a commentary of other mechanisms that make sense with it, that have a more nuanced strategic role in the landscape of combat, and to consider as alternatives when applying adjustments up or down to the Passive.

...Offensive Passives (2/3) ...

...


Ego Form
You feel an expansive power and presence, manifesting physically by sheer force of will.

I think the current implementation is successful as a platform for the Framework specific damage dealing of Id Blades based on limited play with the power, but my impression is that it is lacking the general ability to leverage its Offensive usage outside of that one Framework aspect.

One way to address this that occurred to me is also being a platform for a Tier 4 power that allowed you to transform select powers (that is, you take the Tier 4 power, and any affected powers you have taken would change function, only or only fully realized when Ego Form is active) to conceptually be improved by manifesting EGO physically, hopefully implemented with cosmetic resemblance to Psimon's transformation (enhanced/enlarged further when used with Ego Surge). In my view, this specifically fits with certain powers from the Might Framework (and probably from the upcoming "huge weapon" Framework I suspect would be suitably implemented as a "sister" Framework to it), as also typified by some of the attacks Psimon uses when he transforms.

For the current state of the game, I think this could also be used to enhance other powers within its Framework, opening up its "platform" effect to concepts other than Id Blades and addressing that lack I perceive. Things like boosting Telekinesis scaling to work like STR (was something like this originally intended, given the deficit of its scaling?), even beyond it since you are taking a Power for this, perhaps allowing Ego Surge to boost EGO, and adding secondary effects like stuns to Kinetic Darts and Telekinetic Wave, perhaps only with or further enhanced by Ego Surge usage while in the form. Also, a 2 point advantage to boost STR based on EGO, or replace STR calculations with EGO, might offer some interesting tradeoff possibilities, if simply building that into the power or manifesting it fully at the top Rank would be too powerful.

Defensively, if tangible holds were made more significant in the combat landscape, an EGO based character could also find some usefulness in addressing this potential Achilles' heel, if not with the feature that uses EGO to manifest STR, some other method that works within the desired balance architecture.


Shadow Form
You embody a dark potency, difficult to fathom but terrifying to behold.

Well, I'm unsure if the balance needs adjustment, but I think the many facets of its underlying implementation seem well suited to estabilishing survivability and a successful feel as is, assuming, again, that resistance to certain types of "effects" includes crowd control effects of the applicable types. The intended role for Stealth to play is a factor here.


Cloud of Flies
Your very presence is a corrosive infestation of any foe you approach.

Aside from the apparent functionality problems with this Passive, I also take issue with the specific theme of "flies" being embodied in the power at default.

I would suggest that this be re-implemented as a power called something like "Miasmic Cloud" or "Miasmic Influence" (or perhaps "<Something> Miasma" if there is something suitable in Champion Lore or someone's imagination), and that "Cloud of Flies" be a specific thematic Advantage within a unique mechanic allowing more customization possibilities to this Passive than offered elsewhere (I've also had thoughts of a "Nature" Framework that would conceptually complement the "Supernatural" Framework in mechanics and focus, and have the ability to flesh out Water, Air, Earth, Flora (plants), and, perhaps, Fauna (animal) concepts in combination with the ability to cosmetically flavor existing powers, and would have a Passive with a Support or Defensive take on this mechanic as well).

The central Offensive Passive mechanic would be to apply a significant damage resistance debuff {CON}, a bit smaller if universal with regard to damage type, while within Melee or "One Step" Melee range, depending on balance, with it only applying while within that range being a limitation that allows the potential impact of a resistance debuff to be allowed. From there:

• As part of reworking Aspects, allowing a more significant but specific damage-type related debuff to be offered when they are used along with this power. This seems to fit the idea of Aspects and the customization the Framework seems to be intended to offer. If the base power is not "One Step" Melee, but Melee, maybe extending to "One Step" with an Aspect active should be part of this too.
• As part of the unique customization feature, I think implementing Advantages, with the following as a starting list, as 3 (you can only pick 1, and have to give up a Rank), 2 (you can pick up to 2, as alternatives to Ranking), or 1 (You can freely choose this along with Ranks or other special features) point Advantages, would make this a Passive with a unique functionality and role (NOTE: I'd recommend that a lot of these scale off of PRE, if they scale, where it makes sense and where not otherwise noted):
  • Cloud of Flies - spawn low health pets at certain time intervals/cooldown {REC} that perform the same type of "Miasma" effect and wander a short distance to extend range and/or attack.
  • Weeping Sores - enhance or apply bleeds, or perhaps cause otherwise standard bleeds (by at least Supernatural powers, maybe all Melee bleeds) to be small "Severe Bleeds", with all the inherent mitigation and application limitations I propose for them, perhaps only on initial hit if that is overpowered.
  • Seeping Rot - reduce effectiveness of healing on the target, perhaps by applying a non-stackable Toxic DoT with initial damage a noticable portion of the Hit Points healed, and a short duration of small damage after that.
  • Vampiric Return - damage to an affected target returns a small amount of health and/or energy to you, with a certain lockout duration interval or frequency {REC}.

...Offensive Passives (3/3)

...

Melee Offense:

A basic change with melee I think is needed is to offer a variety of special effect enhancements applied to Melee attacks, gated on a variety of stats and factors to limit how many can be utilized to full potential.

Some ideas for these enhanced effects, limited to current Melee range (with case by case exceptions), but implemented in conjunction with allowing Melee damage to occur without them at a longer "One Step" range (originally conceived as part of a mechanism for a Shapechanging/Bodymorph Framework that brought a subset of full Melee effectiveness to this "One Step" range, or extended both the One Step and Melee ranges, which might also offer implementation possibilities for a Polearm Martial Arts Framework that some have called for):

• A chance to Stun for Melee attacks, chance and strength {EGO} {STR} considering attack time (as per dodge Avoidance mechanics, with length boosting chance).
• A chance to Snare for Melee attacks {DEX} {STR}.
• A boost to Ranged and Ranged AoE avoidance at Melee, and perhaps "One Step", ranges {DEX} {PRE}, offered by some Melee powers and Passives.

I'd like to expand the functionality of DoTs in two direction, primarily for Melee attacks:

• Division into "standard" Bleeds (fixed damage amounts) and "Severe Bleeds" (percentage of health), unique to Melee, though this is in conjunction with fine tuning the interaction of bleeding with various mitigations (interaction discussed in some detail with Defensive Passives). One thing about Severe Bleeds is that I think they should be implemented so that having Bled Out from a Severe Bleed, you are protected by a lockout that allows only "standard" bleeds for its duration, and transforms into a very short duration form when you are at or near full health.
• A distinction between "internal" and "external" bleeding that interacts with different mitigations in certain ways. This would relate to expanding the role of different damage types, with at least some Melee Frameworks offering an expanded ability to select type, and with Melee in general having the ability to cause bleeding with them all while applicability for non-Melee attacks would be limited:
  • Crushing - (internal bleeds): Very little or no Ranged and AoE applicability due to imprecision of inflicting the damage type at range.
  • Piercing - (internal + external bleeds): Significant Ranged applicability for precision based attacks (things like Two Gun Mojo and Sniping rather than SMG and Gatling Gun).
  • Slashing - (external bleeds): Selected Ranged, and perhaps even AoE, attacks, if there are or will be slashing Ranged/AoE attacks or effects.

Martial Arts:

One thing that struck me about the effects of the Offensive Passives in these sub-Frameworks is that some seem almost completely useless, and other seem to be potentially useful, but just not enough by themselves.
The idea that occurred to me was: what if the Framework Passive buff was triggered by a combination of circumstances like those for all, or at least a significant portion, of the triggers for current Focus Passives, with each Focus Offensive Passive being just that...a focus on enhancing the type of effects that are now unique to that Focus Passive. This even seems like it would interact well with the apparent intent of the EB Advantages, though they and other mechanics still seem like they need to be addressed.

With that in mind, I'm proposing tweaks to the effects associated with the "Focus" Passives, and a more significant change in that all or most (as per balancing) types of "basic" effects are present in all Focus Offensive Passives, with a particular Focus Passive offering its unique enhanced "Focused" effect along with its associated "basic" effects.

They are also intended to generally work with Ranged attacks, aside from the Melee additions suggested above that I hope would work along with the listed features.


Focus of the Unleashed Tempest
A feeling of being a storm of destruction, roving at will.

Basic effect is that each time you inflict a critical hit, you get a stacked Heightened Focus buff (damage increase plus energy).

Focused effect is that each time you inflict a critical hit, you get a bonus to DEX and/or have a chance to inflict a Stun (through a short duration bonus to EGO if my suggestion about that is implemented).


Focus of the Untamed Warrior
A feeling of wild abandon in battle, pain and victory just driving you further.

Basic effect is that each time you inflict a bleed, are critically struck, or defeat an opponent, you get a stacked Heightened Focus buff.

Focused effect is that each time you inflict a bleed, are critically struck, or defeat an opponent, you get a single small heal, and each time you defeat an opponent, you get a small power cooldown reduction (best to be % based on the amount of time remaining, I think, if possible) that is locked out for an amount of time after that (an additional heal could be added for this effect to enhance the return from killing an Opponent).


Focus of the Unconquered Swordsman
A feeling of cutting down all comers, every foe a stalk to be bloodily harvested.

Basic effect is that you have a chance to counter or "parry" attacks within Melee range, scaled at about approximately (subject to balancing) 1/4 chance of Dodge, which gives you a stacked Heightened Focus buff. This might be improved by using weapon based MA attacks, perhaps in relation to their EBs and Advantage.

Focused effect is that each time you Parry, you inflict a very limited stacking minor (1% or 2%, 5 ticks or so) Severe Bleed on your next Physical Damage attack within Melee or One Step range.

A general bonus to Stun effectiveness seems like it would be applicable too, though I'm not sure if this should be a "basic" or "Focused" effect, or if, as per my suggested mechanics for Stun, boosting a stat with additional effects is the way to go (I'd think boosting STR if just for this Focus, and EGO if more than one of them).


Focus of the Unfettered Warrior
A feeling of being untouchable, riding the flow of the battle to strike at will.

Basic effect is that each time you Dodge an attack, you get a non stacking Dodge buff as well as a stacked Heightened Focus buff.

Focused effect is damage reflection to random attackers in "One Step" range when a non-Ranged attack is dodged in addition to a significantly enhanced Ranged/Ranged AoE Avoidance mitigation of damage (through a boost to PRE if my suggestion about that is implemented). A bonus to the chance to snare/root as a secondary effect seems like it would be applicable as well (so splitting the stat bonus between PRE and DEX if my suggestions about that are implemented, PRE to get some Threat management synergy from this).



The net effect is that all these Framework Passives offer an often triggered buff to damage that stacks to a limited degree, an energy boost that occurs with limited frequency, and some or all offer a buff to dodge that can be scaled for balance independently, in addition to unique effects that I think provide interesting balances of Passive survivability through damage dealing, crowd control, and mitigation effects.

I also think a way to select damage type for certain weapon based attacks would be useful, especially with some of the ideas for bleeding I have, perhaps as part of a revamped weapon replacer/costume weapon selection mechanic so, when approaching combat, seeing the weapon will let you know what to expect. There are issues on not having that switchable by some sort of weapon selection/power replacer mechanism, I think; ignoring that, the easiest way to implement it currently would seem to be to have a 0 point advantage for some attacks, but to avoid frustration that would require the rumored selective Retcon improvement possibility to be realized (which would seem easy to do for Travel Powers as well as Advantages and Talents, at least, with a lack of dependency), as well as maybe no resource cost for Retcon of 0 point Advantages.

Defensive Passives (1/2) ...

I think most Defensive Passives need very little adjustment to their basic functions, as they concentrate on responding to or negating some aspect of hostile reduction of the decisive survivability factor: Hit Points.

I do think the interactions can be more interesting and sophisticated than is formalized currently, however, and I do have suggestions that relate to fine tuning, preserving, and sometimes significantly changing both strengths and weaknesses that even successful Defensive Passives offer.

One way in particular I address this is with regard to "Severe Bleeding", which, in the form of the Swallowtail Cut Advantage at current, is considered by many to be overpowered when applying damage to them, while also considered as one of the only ways to get utilization out of Melee attacks in a Ranged combat environment by many of those using it. I will highlight where I discuss my proposed interactions with Bleeding, along with the descriptions of how the feel I associate with the power fits with that proposal and interaction with other facets of combat and damage.

However, to begin with, I will describe what I think is a change to the functionality of "Severe Bleeding" that makes it easier to prevent it being unbalancing, while preserving its usefulness (with other changes related to helping Melee discussed in further detail along with Bleeding when I begin to discuss Melee related Offensive Passives):

• "Severe Bleeding" - damage based on % of health with an implemented minimum of something like double "standard" bleed damage, or some other significant bonus that makes sense for balance, and falling back to that value or the lesser standard bleed, perhaps with increased duration, (again, determined by balancing) when that % bleed cannot be applied.
• A limiting feature where having "Bled Out" from a Severe Bleed, you are protected by a lockout that allows only the minimum Severe Bleed non % fallback to be applied for Severe Bleed attacks, or standard bleed if that is considered too strong, for its (relatively long, by combat standards) duration, that disappears or transforms into a very short duration ("Scabbed Over"? ;) ) protection when you are near or at full health.
• A distinction between "internal" and "external" bleeding, inflicted chiefly in association with certain physical damage types (discussed in more detail with Melee Offensive Passives), that provide the ability for Defensive Passives (and some types of Healing powers) to have a more sophisticated role in managing this DoT:
  • External Bleeding - (slashing, piercing): Some major heals with cooldowns, but not every heal, should remove only standard bleeds of this type, with Severe Bleeds of this type being affected only by specific powers (like Purge) or being reduced to standard by dedicated Advantages based on balance. Mitigation of Severe Bleeds of this type should focus on prevention of having it applied, or healing in such a way that lockout is maximized (HoT gains some strategic importance).
  • Internal Bleeding - (crushing, piercing): Some types of even minor heals, like that from the Regeneration Passive, should reduce % based Severe Bleeds of this type to the minimum non % based Severe Bleed form, even without dedicated Advantages, so that the fixed value bleeds of this type are hard to deal with (though something like Purge, again, can remove it).
    Stronger heals should reduce the improved Severe non % bleeds to standard fixed value bleeds, even without dedicated Advantages, so that 2 steps are required to mitigate the % based Severe Bleed to its smallest form, even from them. Mitigation of this type of Severe Bleed should focus on reduction to the fixed value minimum or standard bleed once it is applied, with standard bleeds hard to mitigate.

...


Personal Force Field
You are cocooned in safety, attacks softened and rolled aside as long as this protection holds...but knowing that you stand naked when this protection is overwhelmed or peeled away.

There are concerns about the usefulness of this power in comparison to other Defensive Passives, I think related to basic problems of how much damage it can protect the player from compared to other Passives, and that, unlike the most effective Passives, that protection can be made to disappear. A lack of a display of the remaining protection buffer makes this problem worse, as the player lacks the ability to anticipate or respond to this behavior of the Passive, like they can do by simply watching their Hit Points change with other Passives. I think this is a very important deficit to be addressed, probably before other changes can be fully evaluated.

I do think some limitations make sense, though, like the default Block counting after PFF health is used up blocking full damage to apply its Resistance. However, this doesn't make sense for many Block Powers that project energy for protection, and the graphic representation of them communicates that to the user, with the possible exception of Power Armor's Energy Shield if the "bubble" graphic is the concept of the Force Field, rather than the "skintight" glow that usually manifests. I think it would be useful to validate that as a tradeoff, where Blocks like the default, Ice Shield and Retaliation do not count before PFF, and ones that seem like they should, do so, making the choice of a Block power significant with regard to interaction with the concept of this Passive.

I think such limitations that make sense should be left as part of the Power, and the base Health of the "bubble" should be boosted significantly...I can only go by "feel" right now, but I think a change should be along the lines of doubling PFF health scaling from END, along with the below mechanics:

• Provide an excellent defense against Crowd Control effects {EGO}, that burns up a fair chunk of PFF health (proportional to Break Free health where applicable) in exchange for that effect, which allows PFF to counter those effects, and for those effects to still work towards their goal (exposing the target to damage) because of the unique aspect of PFF being removable protection. I think this could allow at least a significant chance of immunity to these types of effects, enhancing the feel of the Passive in play, and still be balanceable by the PFF health cost.
• Based on the portion of damage that gets through the PFF, Severe Bleeds might be mitigated to some minor degree, with perhaps immunity to Internal Bleeding from Crushing (perhaps not Piercing, though) damage altogether at some threshold of damage penetration. Bleeds and any conceptually "internal" (to the PFF) DoT should also be ensured not affect shield Health at all, interaction and Resistance to damage occurring and being determined by the initial attack penetration alone.
• There should be a chance for DoTs that linger outside the target's body, conceptually, to fail to apply, or "slip off", based on the portion of damage that doesn't penetrate the PFF.

In general, I'm trying to enhance the "safety cocoon" effect in compensation for the Passive's protection being removable. I'm not sure how the raw damage mitigation is intended to compare to other Passives that aren't removable, but I think it should be able to be significantly superior, initially, in many situations when these situational limitations are overcome by the player's power choices and game play, at similar Ranking, with balance keeping an eye on the PFF health cost for this performance when it is otherwise overpowered, along with the significant increase in the PFF health to provide a larger landscape for this to play out.

... Defensive Passives (2/2)


Invulnerability
You feel able to face combat without undue worry, knowing that smaller attacks have no effect on you, and that even tremendous damage will always affect you much less.

I think the reliability of this Passive is its main feature, and is generally perfectly suited to the feel, including the role of the non-Framework stat in mitigation and the Framework stat able to reduce smaller attacks to nothing.

But I do have a conceptualization of how it should interact with Bleeding, based on the concept that only strong blows affect the player through the Passive, though the bleeding itself after that blow has nothing to do with this Passive's Resistance effect like externally damaging DoTs should. I will attempt to outline this, and I think trying to describe it with rudimentary mathematics is the simplest way to clearly (barring math slip-ups) specify the different mechanisms...

The amount of original damage (O) that penetrates through Resistances (P) to apply to the player should be compared to the amount "soaked up" by the STR scaling protection (S) and the actual reduction from that soak (R). With attack damage proportion assigned to affecting "internal" and "external" Bleed determined by damage type (Slashing, Crushing, Piercing) and balanced for the attack in question, where (P - R) is representing the damage not soaked up, and small value and medium value should be determined by balancing (in the absence of a solid foundation to propose figures, I'd propose something like "2" and "5"), something like the following should be the interaction with Bleeds:

• S / O scales a random Deflection chance, where a standard Bleed fails to apply, and a Severe Bleed is downgraded (this could perhaps apply to other DoTs where it makes sense, though I think external DoTs should tend to be negated by interacting with the Passive anyways).
• Bleed DoTs aren't mitigated by Invulnerability at all after the mitigation is determined initially.
• (P - R) / S past a small value applies a one-time unmitigated damage bonus for attacks with a Severe Bleed component, some significant fraction of S to represent the special quality of the damaging strike making the damage soak less effective.
• minimum(Pexternal - S, S * medium value), or external bleed conversion, where this portion of "external" Severe Bleed effect is converted to half its value of "internal" Severe Bleed effect (so, this value will be subtracted from the Pexternal portion of damage being used for "external" Severe Bleed calculation and be added to Pinternal).
• (Pexternal - external bleed conversion) / Oexternal should scale the effectiveness of external Bleed applied (severe mitigation).
• Ointernal + external bleed conversion - minimum(Pinternal - S, S * medium value) is compared to Pinternal + external bleed conversion, where the effectiveness of the internal Bleed applied begins to be scaled down slightly when the damage reduction leaves below some fraction, like reducing the attack to 20% or 30% is required for the scaling down to begin.

The desired effect is for internal Bleeds to be mitigated less effectively by this Passive, based on damage penetration, and for external Bleeds to be severely mitigated based on their penetration, while having the force of the blow that applies it counter this somewhat by being converted to internal bleeding if it succeeds in damaging through the Passive resistance effects.

Also, the interaction mechanic of Deflection is a tweak to get some more mileage out of the STR scaling aspect that I think aids the feel of the Passive, that could perhaps apply to other types of secondary attack effects.


Lightning Reflexes
Nimbly able to avoid fearsome attacks you see coming, the larger the attack the more comfort you take in knowing you can roll with it.

I think this is also very successful and distinct in feel with its existing mechanics.

As far as interaction with Bleeding, I think standard bleeding should scale in a minor way, with the Avoidance of the initial attack (comparison of original damage to damage that penetrates the Passive). For Severe Bleeding, I think the internal portion should have a good chance to be reduced to standard Bleeding and both should be scaled more significantly to the Avoidance of the initial attack, with external significantly less mitigated. I also think external DoTs should follow the behavior of Severe external Bleeding as far as mitigation interaction.

Also, I think interaction of Avoidance mitigation with Crowd Control effects, as a capped (small) chance to avoid them, and perhaps uncapped to reduce their effectiveness, should be implemented if it is not, and clarified to players.

In addition, one thing I think is important is for actual travel time of Ranged attacks to play a conceptual role in the Avoidance calculation if this is not already the case. However, I also think snares, roots, and holds should be ensured to have varying degrees of very significant Avoidance penalties, again clearly outlined to players, along with proposing roles for some Powers to counter Avoidance directly, to counter the increased effectiveness in escaping things altogether...there are already other tools geared toward improving Avoidance in place that can be tuned as needed.

Finally, as an opportunity to balance based on other factors than base effectiveness for straight damage, some AoE attacks(like Fire Breath and how it envelops, as opposed to Fireball where you can "roll" with the blast) and specific Powers (discussed somewhat with Offensive Passives) seem like they could conceptually counter some of the ability for Avoidance to negate them. There is also that Avoidance effects for all but the slowest attacks seem to me like they should be significantly penalized with Blocking active, perhaps by having a time value subtracted from the calculation when blocking? I think this could be complemented by a boost to the base value of Avoidance that this Passive offers, and perhaps an adjustment to its scaling as needed along with it, depending on the intended experience of the power as you level.


Defiance
The more punishment given to you, the more you can take, defiantly wading into the heart of battle.

There seems an opportunity to enhance the way this power conveys the type of feel I think would serve it, as well as help survivability and offer further distinction of what it offers.

With regard to all types of Bleeding, and other DoTs, I think there should be a diminishing effect {STR} offered besides the effectiveness of Resistance stacking as a DoT ticks, so that the effectiveness of all DoTs are drastically reduced in effectiveness as far as duration beyond a few ticks, as a distinctive feature of this Passive.

Also, a progressively increasing effectiveness of Breakout damage (magnifying existing EGO and STR effectiveness) and reduction in Crowd Control effect {EGO} duration in general seems like a good survivability mechanic that makes sense for this Passive.

Finally, I think there should be a built-in effect equivalent to one stack as far as resistance, with the effect of enhancing initial performance and performance after Enrage usage, with an eye towards boosting the maximum effect slightly, while also ensuring that the stacks disappear one by one over a long period for a gradual removal of the effectiveness. This latter behavior has of course been suggested before, and seems like the way the Power should work when it's main mitigation does not offer more effective protection than some always-there Passives.

All of these should be done along with fixing the broken mechanics of Build switching and addressing unintended ways to stack Defiance outside of the Passive.

This is not to say the Energy generation effect that can be overlooked when comparing this Passive to others is not a distinct and useful feature, but the base survivability needed to utilize that seems a bit too fragile to me as it stands, though the limit of improvement to a single stack (though always there) is intended to recognize the potential usefulness of that feature.


Regeneration
Your body can be counted on to repair itself and recover from anything, given time, but you have to concentrate on surviving until it does so with no other protection provided.

I think having, in effect, automated healing is easy to understand, and works well with the ability of the player to utilized Blocking and with conveying a unique feeling to the power, though I think a minor resistance to specific things like Crushing/AoE damage {CON} would make sense if the power wasn't already so successful an offering.

With regard to Bleeding, I think a mechanic like the one I propose for Defiance is inherent in the way the power responds to damage, and I think conceptually the Passive should be more effective for internal Bleeding, even downgrading the Severe form on a healing tick like I describe in the preface, and less effective for external Bleeding, with that extending to other conceptually external DoTs.

Further, certain damage types seem like they should be able to bypass this DoT reduction, and/or perhaps have an interaction to counter heal tick growth, with the Elemental types seeming like one good fit (poisoning or acid burn, frostbite, searing) for this mechanism. This seems like it could work well with reshaping the power to be slightly less effective at low levels, and slightly more effective at high levels, as far as balancing the base healing effects in conjunction with this type of limiting interaction possibility.

Support Passives

The impression I have of the Support Passives is that they implement a minor effect or combination of effects along the lines of Offensive and Defensive Passives for survivability, enhanced by the Energy Equilibrium associated with the Support Role, partially by application to themselves but leaning towards facilitating the survival/effectiveness of others, either directly, or indirectly by enhancing powers that can be used for that purpose. In other words, extending the types of survival mechanics useful in Offensive and Defensive passives to others, and enhancing collective survivability as a result.

There are relatively few Frameworks that are primarily targeted on this Role (not counting sub-Frameworks), but I think it is an important aspect of team gameplay, which needs some urgent attention in the current state of the game, and I hope changes in the spirit of the following can be helpful in achieving that, along with addressing the other issues affecting cooperative play.

...

Molecular Self Assembly
Yet Another Invention, you've created an interface that revitalizes your body as your gadgets become ready to use, enabling you to get maximum utilization out of the devices at hand.


I think the way this works can provide some survivability, but lacks a clear path to leveraging its effects into supporting others or Pets that might not already be achieved by the Equilibrium boost from simply going into Support Role, when both seem like a focus of the Framework.

A basic functionality that seems like it could aid this is for a mechanism, and this seems like it could be an improvement for Field Drones, where Pets apply buffs, perhaps based on Gadgeteering buffs you've gotten, to yourself and others based on using up your Energy pool when they are in Overdrive mode, perhaps with Overdrive being a toggle instead of a maintain to counter the issues with its usage. It would be useful synergy of Pets with this Passive if an active toggled Pet Overdrive coming off of cooldown triggered this Passive's effect regularly as well.

Another functionality, which I've proposed before in a rough form involving a "Factory" Power, would be some way to have certain Framework Powers leveraged into bonuses for Munitions Bots, where a balance tuned version of Gadgeteering attack Powers the player has is used when mobile, and perhaps one effect resembling an existing Gadgeteering Self Buff that the user specifies by targeting the Factory and using the power, which can apply to Munitions Bots damage using the player's Energy pool.

Perhaps this Factory could also be associated with Attack Toys, which I feel might be better implemented as a less thematically specific "interference" type pet that had an "Attack Toys" cosmetic option, and could be produced by the "Field Deployable Factory". If a separate power, or it automatically produced Attack Toys instead of requiring the user response mechanice for Play Time, the buff feature could be implemented like Overdrive, preferably toggled, perhaps with significant energy cost for automatic Play Time creation of additional pets of this type. In effect, the most beneficial implementation that comes to mind is that this Factory replaces Attack Toys, manages a "Play Time" like implementation to produce more useful analogs to them, and applies the proposed ability to leverage some Gadgeteering buffs to Pets, using the player's Energy pool but also providing synergistic return through this Passive's functionality by regular cooldown triggers off of an auto-Overdrive.

Also, the idea for allowing a player who selected Experimental Blaster to leverage its special effects on to a Pet might serve in a low damage and separately adjusted and/or time-gated form for Attack Toys that might allow both powers to come into their own when used in combination.

One thing is that a functionality of sharing the energy return among teammates might seem like a straightforward method of achieving survivability in a Support oriented way, but I think that is already offered elsewhere and fails at offering a unique significance and feel to the Framework and Passive.

Instead, the general idea of the above suggestions is to give a unique mechanism and feel to this Framework, where the Powers are "Inventions", and the outlined functionality is based on the premise of leveraging those Inventions to other Inventions and players, so that the more you invest in Inventions, the more you get out of that leveraging, with certain powers performing key roles as leveraging points as part of their functionality: Drones for support buffs and healing, Bots for various damage dealing methods and limited Crowd Control (I'd have Entangling Mesh manifest for the mobile version), Factory/Toys for buffing pets and a unique "swarm" pet mechanism with aggro management uses.


Aura of ...
Your towering mystical power allows your mere presence has a profound and fundamental influence on those around you.

I think one problem is that these, AFAIK, currently do not affect Pets in a set of sub-Frameworks where Pets are important and it would seem to make sense for them to do so.

Another is related to my perception of what "Circle" Pets should offer as part of the tradeoff for not being able to move and how that might affect providing Support, and a general need for Pet improvement, where one the spawned Pets should offer the corresponding Aura from their sub-Framework in a smaller range around them.

As for more detailed changes, I think these Passives could have more interactions with the type of factors I explore throughout my discussion of Passives:

• ...Arcane Clarity - Perhaps go further in providing INT-like benefits, without undue overpowering of the effect, by improving Perception {INT} as well. This is in hopes of Stealth becoming a successfully balanced and effective facet of combat.
• ...Primal Majesty - With the broad affect on every stat, I think this has a variety of useful effects applicable to all Roles, but I do think a lesser bonus {EGO} scaled on a non-Framework stat would be one way to allow more utility to be gotten out of this power without overpowering the readily accessible stat improvement scaling. Perhaps taking this opportunity to tune it so the PRE component is tuned down in effect for the player with the Aura, with this new component boosting the player's bonus {EGO} more than others? Seems a good fit for Telepathy Support usage, though having a Framework Stat like INT play a role with PRE for the effect on others seems desirable as well, to provide a different slant to its usage for the Frameworks.
• ...Ebon Destruction - Perhaps an increased boost to base DoT damage or degradation of DoT mitigation mechanics would add usefulness without overpowering "alpha strike" type damage influence. I also hope Break Free damage is affected by this.
• ...Radiant Protection - Perhaps an increased boost to DoT mitigation mechanics would be useful, especially if Severe Bleeds became more represented. Balance allowing, a boost to Crowd Control resistances seems to fit this concept.

Seraphim
You offer a terrible aspect to your foes, and a beneficent influence to your allies.

I think it is unfortunate that the Illumination Advantage, Brilliance, was unable to provide a unique Aura effect, as sort of a supplemental Support Passive, due to technical limitations, but given the Framework focus on supporting others, and the alternative implementation still helping to reduce micromanagement, this Passive focusing on a combination of Offense and Defense to keep the player alive, along with a minor Support healing Aura effect, is generally successful AFAICS.

I think the small healing effect should have a salving effect on DoTs, however, interacting as a minor heal as I outline in discussing Bleeding under Defensive Passives, while having an effect that scales down DoT damage each time it ticks, perhaps by applying a DoT specific resistance Buff if that is possible.

Also, I do think Brilliance could provide a permanent Illumination Buff effect on the player, and perhaps auto apply Illumination to the target of attacks...these seem like they would be feasible additions to get closer to the originally intended mechanic, though they shouldn't cost Energy for these single target applications if the mechanics of checking for the buff/debuff already existing might be complicated.
Again, fixing stacking issues and other apparently unintended behavior seems important for functionality like this to be implemented properly.

Hey, please feel free to post corrections to my understanding of current mechanics if I go wrong somewhere, point out any errors I don't seem to be aware of, or share some reasoned disagreement with my intent or success in achieving it.

Anyone want to offer some thoughts on how you think the Passives will feel with the suggested tweaks and changes? Any feelings or observations about the shape of the proposed changes to Melee and Bleeding, and their effect on the "Melee Problem" in the current game?