Skills that give buffs for 30 minutes or an hour. Why would I press that button ONCE an hour?!! That isn't gameplay in any way, shape or form, its the ultimate lame....
/Cheers, Lahnmir
I've always found these weird. If the duration of a skill is measured in minutes, why isn't it just a passive at that point for all the gameplay difference it makes?
Most of them are passive In world of Warcraft now. Personally I like having to press the button, even if only once an hour.
Everquest, Ranger healing abilities [not cures like cure poison]. These were meant to pay homage to the Ranger's hybrid status with some druidic skills. And if you got a splinter or a paper cut they would serve nicely. Otherwise, mostly useless.
Ah but I seen many times where ranja heals saved a raid or group from wiping
Also just like ranja cures, ranja heals are great to top off hp to save healer mana and therefore downtime.
I think for me the "worst" powers were the ones that sounded great but turned out to be disappointing. I liked Flurry, but then, I didn't expect much from it and didn't try to take down tough villains single-handedly with it.
The CoH power (or powers) that disappointed me most was the set that included invisibility and phasing. I think the top one gave you the power to be insubstantial and allow attacks to pass through you. But there wasn't a lot you could do with stealth and invisibility, they didn't work in critical instances, and that ultimate one was just an escape mechanism that you had to trigger before it was too late and didn't last long as I recall. Well, about all I can recall of it was trying to use it a few times and ending up dead anyway.
Teleport and superspeed were the more disappointing powers. They should have made T-port point-to-point line of site so you could jump to any solid surface you could see, maybe within a radius indicated by the color of the halo around your cursor, and with a faster animation. As it was, you really needed to have hover (from the flight set) and a good deal of patience. Superspeed might have been great if you had super reflexes to go with it, and they added a mini-super jump.
In current games, I'm often frustrated when playing Pharah in Overwatch. I love the idea of being able to fly and shoot missiles, but there's some serious drawbacks. The jump-jet "flight" is sadly limited, even unpredictable/unreliable in the heat of battle, and the missiles are relatively slow, and their smoke trails give away your location -- up in the wide-open air -- and that suit of armor must be made of aluminum foil because you don't have many hit points. The Ultimate attack also pins you in place for the duration (and it's challenging to get more than 1 kill - if that - with this ult). Finally Pharah seems to be the only one capable of wounding herself with her own weapon! You can even commit instant suicide if you hit your ult at the wrong time.
Any button on your toolbar that literally did nothing but make your characters stronger - a buff.
Especially any buff that had to be recast every few minutes.
It's actually one of the things I hate about video game design in general that I think all developers in all genres should gravitate away from.
Pressing a button to get x% more of Y stat or whatever is not fun, it is not engaging gameplay, it is wasted space on a bloated UI.
If you want buffs, do them as passive auras, or as a part of a rotational/situational ability - i.e. deal X damage, and boost your parties Y stat by X% for 20 seconds.
IIRC The Flurry ability in CoH had a small debuff on your target which made it useful. It was also a bonus power and/or one you had to get for a travel power. My tanker used it a few times while other powers were on cooldown.
Invisibility (cloaking device) gave you a buff to avoid being hit and in terms of defensive abilities, that was pretty much all the Devices power set had.
I liked teleport since it gave you a few seconds of Hover flight so you could set up your next jump. I found you could also use it while Stunned and Entangled which got me out of a few bad situations.
Co-Op abilities, like in GW2, where they have Fields and Finishers. Hate the system in every way, just annoying as all hell in Zerg battles where finishers and fields are getting spammed all over the place there is really no cohesion, and in small groups, it's just annoying to pull them off together.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
Skills that give buffs for 30 minutes or an hour. Why would I press that button ONCE an hour?!! That isn't gameplay in any way, shape or form, its the ultimate lame....
/Cheers, Lahnmir
I dunno, I was a Pally in Vanilla WOW and loathed having to buff the group or raid every 5 minutes.
"Kyle the buff?" "What, hang on...I AM FIGHTING HERE!"
Skills that give buffs for 30 minutes or an hour. Why would I press that button ONCE an hour?!! That isn't gameplay in any way, shape or form, its the ultimate lame....
/Cheers, Lahnmir
I dunno, I was a Pally in Vanilla WOW and loathed having to buff the group or raid every 5 minutes.
"Kyle the buff?" "What, hang on...I AM FIGHTING HERE!"
"Kyle the buff?" "ah no thanks, I just had me tea."
Constantine, The Console Poster
"One of the most difficult tasks men can perform, however much others may despise it, is the invention of good games and it cannot be done by men out of touch with their instinctive selves." - Carl Jung
Haha, those first two sent me on a trip down memory lane!
I mained a BH Merc during that time too xD
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
Comments
I've got the straight edge.
Ah but I seen many times where ranja heals saved a raid or group from wiping
Also just like ranja cures, ranja heals are great to top off hp to save healer mana and therefore downtime.
"I am my connectome" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0
The CoH power (or powers) that disappointed me most was the set that included invisibility and phasing. I think the top one gave you the power to be insubstantial and allow attacks to pass through you. But there wasn't a lot you could do with stealth and invisibility, they didn't work in critical instances, and that ultimate one was just an escape mechanism that you had to trigger before it was too late and didn't last long as I recall. Well, about all I can recall of it was trying to use it a few times and ending up dead anyway.
Teleport and superspeed were the more disappointing powers. They should have made T-port point-to-point line of site so you could jump to any solid surface you could see, maybe within a radius indicated by the color of the halo around your cursor, and with a faster animation. As it was, you really needed to have hover (from the flight set) and a good deal of patience. Superspeed might have been great if you had super reflexes to go with it, and they added a mini-super jump.
In current games, I'm often frustrated when playing Pharah in Overwatch. I love the idea of being able to fly and shoot missiles, but there's some serious drawbacks. The jump-jet "flight" is sadly limited, even unpredictable/unreliable in the heat of battle, and the missiles are relatively slow, and their smoke trails give away your location -- up in the wide-open air -- and that suit of armor must be made of aluminum foil because you don't have many hit points. The Ultimate attack also pins you in place for the duration (and it's challenging to get more than 1 kill - if that - with this ult). Finally Pharah seems to be the only one capable of wounding herself with her own weapon! You can even commit instant suicide if you hit your ult at the wrong time.
Especially any buff that had to be recast every few minutes.
It's actually one of the things I hate about video game design in general that I think all developers in all genres should gravitate away from.
Pressing a button to get x% more of Y stat or whatever is not fun, it is not engaging gameplay, it is wasted space on a bloated UI.
If you want buffs, do them as passive auras, or as a part of a rotational/situational ability - i.e. deal X damage, and boost your parties Y stat by X% for 20 seconds.
Champions Online, Mini Gun ability
Invisibility (cloaking device) gave you a buff to avoid being hit and in terms of defensive abilities, that was pretty much all the Devices power set had.
I liked teleport since it gave you a few seconds of Hover flight so you could set up your next jump. I found you could also use it while Stunned and Entangled which got me out of a few bad situations.
"What, hang on...I AM FIGHTING HERE!"
Gut Out!
What, me worry?
"ah no thanks, I just had me tea."
I mained a BH Merc during that time too xD
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/