Trick Arrow is finally getting its long-awaited revamp in Rebirth Issue 4! Trick Arrow has long been overshadowed by other support sets in many ways, but in Rebirth Issue 4, Trick Arrow will finally be getting the love it deserves.
One issue with the set currently is that many of its powers are weaker than similar powers in other sets or are otherwise low-impact, resulting in the set's total contribution simply being weaker than other sets. This is being addressed with a set of improvements to the base capabilities of a variety of the set's powers, to bring Trick Arrow's total support capability up to par with other sets. In particular, Flash Arrow becomes a useful tohit debuff power, helping address the set's lackluster every-spawn mitigation. These changes are detailed below:
Power changes.[spoiler]
. | Entangling Arrow: Slow increased from scale 0.1 to scale 0.4 (50% for defenders, 40% others), added scale 2.5 damage debuff (31.25% for defenders, 25% corruptors/controllers, 18.75% for masterminds) |
. | Flash Arrow: Added additional scale 1 tohit debuff (total of scale 1.5, the original 0.5 remaining irresistable - 18.75% for defenders, 15% corruptors/controllers, 11.25% masterminds) |
. | Glue Arrow: Increased -recharge from 20% to 40% |
. | Ice Arrow: Slow increased from scale 0.1 to scale 0.4 |
. | Poison Gas Arrow: Added -150% regen, duration increased to 30s to match the set's other persistent location aoes |
. | Acid Arrow: Resistance debuff increased from scale 2 to scale 3 (30% defender, 22.5% others), radius increased from 8 feet to 10 feet. |
. | Disruption Arrow: Resistance debuff increased from scale 2 to scale 3 (30% defender, 22.5% others), target cap increased to 16 |
. | Oil Slick Arrow: none |
. | EMP Arrow: Recovery crash reduced from -10000% to -100% |
The range of all Trick Arrow powers has also been standardized to 80 feet.[/spoiler]
Additionally, Trick Arrow suffers from drawbacks that stem from the set's signature property of being entirely enemy-targeted. This is an important distinguishing feature of the set - it's a playstyle-defining property and helps contribute to overall playstyle diversity in the game - and will not be changing. However, because of this, a Trick Arrow character only gets full potential by activating a whole bunch of powers on the enemies, usually at the start of each fight, while sets with buffs and heals can often activate them outside of fights and still gain benefit. This means Trick Arrow puts a bigger burden on the combat animation time budget of its user than most other support sets, meaning they take longer to output a similar amount of support than other sets and have less time to use their other non-support powers.
This property of the set is not going to change, so instead we are making other tweaks to mitigate its downsides. Making Flash Arrow useful is part of this, because its no-aggro nature means it can be used before a fight starts. The main change to address this, however, is adding set-internal synergy between powers. Using two or more Trick Arrow powers in a row now can give bonus effects, making them more than the sum of their parts and ensuring that Trick Arrow users are properly compensated for their investment of animation time. The synergistic effects are as follows:
Synergy effects.[spoiler]
. | Flash Arrow: Places 'Dazzled' effect - dazzled enemies have a minor accuracy penalty and suffer 20% increased defense and resistance debuffs from Acid Arrow, Disruption Arrow, and Oil Slick Arrow, plus an increased knockdown chance from OSA. |
. | Glue Arrow: Enemies slowed by Glue Arrow take 20% increased damage from a burning Oil Slick Arrow. |
. | Acid Arrow: Places 'Acid Burn' effect - acid burned enemies suffer 20% increased -tohit and -regeneration debuffs, slows, and endurance drain from Entangling Arrow, Glue Arrow, Ice Arrow, Poison Gas Arrow, Oil Slick Arrow, and EMP Arrow. |
. | Disruption Arrow: Enemies suffer reduced mez resistance, increasing mez durations (-40% for defenders, -33% for everyone else). Additionally, Entangling Arrow, Ice Arrow, Poison Gas Arrow, and EMP Arrow gain +1 magnitude to their mezzes against affected targets. |
[/spoiler]
None of the synergy effects stack in any way. The synergies are designed so that every power either gains a synergy from another power or gives one (or both). Synergies also tend to go from offensive powers to defensive powers or vice versa, so that you get the most benefit from mixing both offensive and defensive powers.
These changes will be available on the test server following the weekly server maintenance tonight (June 19th). Go forth and have fun with newly sharper, pointier sticks!
