Quote from: MuonNeutrino on January 26, 2023, 12:16:50 PMMore or less, the reason is that, the set bonus notwithstanding, Rolling Barrage isn't intended to be a range-focused set. Rather, it's intended to be the category's equivalent to Thunderstrike or Crushing Impact - the easy-to-acquire uncommon-grade set that covers a wide level range up to max level, with good but not overwhelming set bonuses, that contains a bunch of broadly useful triples.
So ... it does something I don't need in any of my builds (past, present or future) ...
Quote from: MuonNeutrino on January 26, 2023, 12:16:50 PMRight now, in TAoE to get an acc/end/rech or dam/end/rech you have to use a pvp recipe, and acc/dam/rech is available only in a rare set and the winter set, all of which are relatively much more difficult to acquire.
Curious.
I find myself almost NEVER wanting that combination in ANY powers that I build for due to one excessively simple reason.
Recharge enhancement
on the enhancements themselves kills Proc chances.
What I want in a Target AoE set is something that pretty much doesn't exist ... Acc/Dam/Range ... or even Acc/Dam/End/Range ... but recharge enhancement is something I go out of my way to AVOID, rather than embrace (especially if Frankenslotting).
Quote from: MuonNeutrino on January 26, 2023, 12:16:50 PMThat was the hole this set was meant to cover in terms of enhancement pieces.
Which is where you lose me with the conceptual scaffolding you've offered.
You're basically trying to solve a problem that I don't have.
Consider.
Rolling Barrage
Accuracy/Damage
Damage/Endurance
Damage/Recharge
Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
Damage/Endurance/Recharge
= 1.625 SO Accuracy ... 2.25 SO Damage ... 1.625 SO Endurance ... 2.125 SO Recharge = 7.625 SO enhancements equivalence
Annihilation set
Accuracy/Damage
Damage/Recharge
Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
Accuracy/Damage/Recharge/Endurance
Proc: -Resistance debuff
= 2.0625 SO Accuracy ... 2.6875 SO Damage ... 0.9375 SO Endurance ... 1.5625 SO Recharge + Proc = 7.25 SO enhancement equivalence + Proc
Basically, your Rolling Barrage delivers ... reduced Accuracy AND Damage ... in exchange for improved Endurance and Recharge reduction ... which is ultimately a
BAD TRADE.
Allow me to illustrate why trading damage enhancement for endurance and recharge enhancement instead is not as valuable as you might think.
Let's say (for simplistic comparison purposes to illustrate what I'm talking about here most effectively) ... that an attack with no enhancement needs to hit a Foe 4x in order to defeat that Foe.
Let's also stipulate that the attack costs 4 END per use (to keep the math simple) and takes 4 seconds to recharge and 2 seconds to animate.
I'm purposefully ignoring accuracy and postulating this as an auto-hit matrix of scenarios to reduce variability and make my point clear.
Here's what happens with a single SO enhancement to either damage or endurance or recharge when slotted into this benchmark power scenario.
Zero Enhancement = 4 attacks = 4 animations (8 seconds) + 3 recharges (12 seconds) = 20 seconds to defeat Foe @ 16 END cost
So that's the benchmark.
So what happens if we slot a
single SO into that hypothetical power in that scenario?
Well ...
Damage SO = 3 attacks = 3 animations (6 seconds) + 2 recharges (8 seconds) = 14 seconds to defeat Foe @ 12 END cost
Endurance SO = 4 attacks = 4 animations (8 seconds) + 3 recharges (12 seconds) = 20 seconds to defeat Foe @ 12 END cost
Recharge SO = 4 attacks = 4 animations (8 seconds) + 3 recharges (9 seconds) = 17 seconds to defeat Foe @ 16 END cost
And just for giggles ... let's "cheat" the premise and put Endurance+Recharge together (2 slots worth!) up against a single Damage slot ... what happens then?
Endurance+Recharge SO = 4 attacks = 4 animations (8 seconds) + 3 recharges (9 seconds) = 17 seconds to defeat Foe @ 12 END cost
Damage SO = 3 attacks = 3 animations (6 seconds) + 2 recharges (8 seconds) =
14 seconds to defeat Foe @ 12 END costIn other words ... Damage enhancement
is more effective and more useful to enhance than Endurance OR Recharge ... until Damage enhancement gets capped by ED.
This is why when I say that trading Damage (and Accuracy!) enhancement for Endurance and Recharge instead is a
BAD MOVEā¢ on your part as a developer, I'm not dabbling in hyperbole here.
You ALWAYS want to buff up Damage until ED is giving you a haircut ...
and then and only then does it make sense to start diversifying into Endurance and Recharge buffing for a damaging attack power.
If your intention was to create a set that is only useful as a Frankenslotter to be harvested for spare parts ... then, mission accomplished (I guess)?
If your intention was to create a compelling alternative to what is already available ... then you've missed the mark ...
BADLY.The formulation you've come up with does things that builds do not need, by sacrificing the things that they do need (and want and desire) in order to get there.
Quote from: MuonNeutrino on January 26, 2023, 12:16:50 PMA range-focused set could be an interesting idea, and I'm not opposed to the idea of doing one at some point, but this isn't that set.
Not to harsh on you too convincingly here ... but I cannot think of ANY circumstances in which the Rolling Barrage set would be preferable to the Annihilation set ... or the Detonation set ... or even the Positron's Blast set ... except maybe as a 2-slot Frankenslotter, but DEFINITELY NEVER as a 6-slot option.
Sorry.
Quote from: MuonNeutrino on January 26, 2023, 12:16:50 PM(The idea of a 'universal ranged attack' set is also an interesting one; merged set categories like that are something we've been playing with lately and I might revisit that one.)
That wasn't somewhere I was going, but agree that a Universal Ranged Damage (single target, TAoE, cone) set would be an interesting direction for future development(s).
Quote from: MuonNeutrino on January 26, 2023, 12:16:50 PMThe range set bonus is there partly for flavor (the more times you slot the set - the more guns you have in your barrage - the more range you get - the farther your barrage can roll forward), and partly because range as a set bonus is fairly uncommon so this adds some more variety to set bonus options, rather than because the set is range-focused. The recharge bonus being relatively small is because the set also provides a desirable defense bonus, so I don't want to go overboard on the bonuses on an uncommon-grade set. And yeah, the defense bonus should indeed have a 1.25% melee component, that's just an omission in the patch notes and it does indeed have that component in the game.
Yeah ... in that case, this new set is going to be mostly a
hard pass for me then, with only the most boutique niche application uses (2-set bonus) for anything I might ever want to build. It's objectively "weaker" than the alternatives, and the set bonuses are not in and of themselves compelling enough to make me want to use this set (in a 6-slot configuration) over the already available alternatives. Sorry (not sorry).