Great Ultimate idea (IMO)

deepseamk20b14_ESO · February 2015

So, I have been thinking about this for a long while now. Even with the 1.6 change to ultimate gain I still think ultimates can be improved to feel more....ULTIMATE!

I will use Soul Tether and a couple of others as an example:

As of right now, Soul Tether cost 150 ultimate. 1.6 I believe it goes down to 125. Anyways, have you ever seen you ultimate just plain out maxed out and wondered to yourself "hmmm, I have 350 ultimate, and my ultimate only costs 150, so why is there no difference in damage for a skill that is clearly overcharged?"

So I thought about set bonuses and such, how the more pieces you have the more powerful the armor gets via said bonus's. What if a similar thing happened with ultimates? Using FTC and whatever other add-on I have (can't remember) I can see that at max charge Soul Tether is maxed out at 666%. Number of the beast aside, the skill should have added effects depending on how overcharged it is.

To make the math and such a bit more simple let's pretend for a moment Soul Tether cost 100 Ult. at 100 ult means 100% charged. 200 is 200% charged. So on a so forth until it is maxed out at let's say....500%.

At 200% you gain an additional 4% healing from the player you are Soul Tethered to. At 300% Soul Tether will do an additional 5% damage. At 400% your allies get a bigger heal from the synergy. At max over charge you gain 3 shadows that absorb X amount of damage.

Let's try this with Standard of Might. At 200% any ally within the Standard get's an armor bonus for X seconds. At 300% the radius is increased by 1 Meter. At 400% Damage over Time is increased slightly. At Max overcharge upon initially casting Standard of Might a fiery eruption happens that deals X amount of immediate damage.

Now let's try Summon Charged Atronach for Sorc. At 200% Atronach has more range. At 300% allies within X radius gain charged weapons that do an additional X amount of lightning damage for X amount of seconds. At 400% Atronach last for 5 seconds longer and can follow caster. At max overcharge Minor storm minions are called that pulse doing X amount of damage per second to enemies within X range.

Considering 1.6 changes the fact you cannot just sit there and charge your ultimates like we do now, I feel exploiting this stuff would be more difficult and you would have to actually be fighting (as per 1.6 new ult gain anyways) to get overcharged.

To me, this would make people really have to consider whether or not to use their ultimate as soon as it is ready or to wait. It can make it so groups can coordinate their max ultimate attacks, and the defenders could do the same. Obviously the extra effects couldn't be so much to where the skills would become unstoppable, but just enough to make the ultimate you have been saving feel, well, ULTIMATE and not just wasted!

What do you all think?

Panda244 · February 2015

It'd make overcharging your Ultimate be worthwhile, and it'd justify the nerf to Ultimate generation... I like it, @ZOS_GinaBruno get your combat team on this!

likewow777 · February 2015

I don't always know if @Panda244 is joking, so I'll add that I really like this as well

I especially like the differences in extra abilities for each ultimate, but would add that it might cause people to complain that "ultimate x" has better overcharge effects than "ultimate y". Still, the idea of holding out on using an ultimate, possibly risking death, makes gameplay sound more fun.

Panda244 · February 2015

likewow777 wrote: »

I don't always know if @Panda244 is joking, so I'll add that I really like this as well I especially like the differences in extra abilities for each ultimate, but would add that it might cause people to complain that "ultimate x" has better overcharge effects than "ultimate y". Still, the idea of holding out on using an ultimate, possibly risking death, makes gameplay sound more fun.

@likewow777 not joking this time, I actually like this. I never supported the Ultimate change in 1.6, because Ultimate abilities weren't Ultimate, at least this attempts to rectify that.

deepseamk20b14_ESO · February 2015

It'd be interesting to see what ideas other people have as well. Nothing to overpowered, but like I said, enough to make an ultimate seem ultimate!

Sheuib · February 2015

When I first started reading this I was worried that you were just going to suggest an ultimate that was like 500% overcharged should be 500% more effective. But, what you suggest is actually pretty nice. The only problem I see is what do you suggest for ultimates that cost different amounts? I mean an ultimate that is cheaper obviously will be able to have way more overcharge than a more expensive one. Does that ultimate then get more additions? I would suggest that you cap the additions at like 2 or 3.

deepseamk20b14_ESO · February 2015

It would definitely require balancing for such issues, though I have an idea for that as well. Something like Soul Harvest however which costs only 50 ULT would still see some wasted ultimate at the top like your saying. However, this could also be be turned into something good.

So Soul Harvest cost 50 ULT, so naturally 200%, 300%, 400%, and so on until eventually 2000% seems like a huge gap comparatively, and it is. But, this would be in line with the whole having to decide on whether to use the ULT now or wait til it is fully overcharged. The way to not make it so crazy overpowered is to just scale appropriately.

So instead of say, 200% getting a 5% bonus, perhaps only a 1% bonus instead. Especially with this skill in particular since it's fairly easy to gain ULT with it, even in 1.6. I don't want to say diminishing returns but just smaller increments. The ULTs with a higher amount of ULT needed stay on track with larger benefits mainly because it is harder to fully charge so the outcome should be proportionate. With ULTs that require much less ULT, you would still get good benefits from overcharging, purely by the fact those skills are meant to charge fast anyways, though the benefits are smaller in the short run, in the long run they add up and become just as worth while as other ULTs requiring more ULT.

As far as capping how many added effects an ULT has I would say no just because I feel it would be harder for ZoS to actually program and implement. Not to mention you would still have wasted overcharge I feel. I think the easiest, fairest, and most practical way to combat what you are talking about is how I laid it out above in the 3rd paragraph. Good thinking though, very good point.

TheBucket · February 2015

I like this

deepseamk20b14_ESO · February 2015

To bad one of the moderators or devs won't care. I have seen several good ideas since launch but it's always for naught. I have played one or two games where player ideas were actually implemented and it made the connection between the company and the community much tighter.

Fivefivesix · February 2015

Man that's an awesome idea! *internet high five*

deepseamk20b14_ESO · February 2015

Come on forum mods, WHAT SAY YOU!?