Beam Rifle Power Set

Beam Rifle Power Set

By Phil "Synapse" Zeleski

Beam Rifle is a new primary power set for Blasters and Corruptors and a new secondary power set for Defenders. This new ranged damage set allows you to harness the destructive power of advanced particle weaponry to disintegrate your foes.

Beam Rifle provides a cascading mechanic triggered by the Disintegrate power. Foes hit by the Disintegrate power have the disintegrating effect placed on them. Enemies suffering from this effect take additional effects or damage from Beam Rifle attacks. In addition, single target Beam Rifle attacks (Single Shot, Charged Shot, Lancer Shot, and Penetrating Ray) have a chance to cause the disintegrating effect to spread to three additional targets, who are then vulnerable to single target attacks that can spread the effect to three more targets. This allows the Beam Rifle user to quickly weaken and then eliminate groups. Although Beam Rifle is a single target set, the clever use of Disintegrate combined with the area of effect (AOE) powers (Cutting Beam, Piercing Ray, and Overcharge), plus a little luck, can cause a significant amount of AOE damage.

Design Notes

The development process for a new weapon set is always tricky. You have to answer some basic questions first. Where will the character draw the weapon from? When drawn, how will the weapon sit in the character's hands? When the weapon is drawn, what will the idle animation look like? Once the animation team decides those issues, the next step is to add the visual effects. Leo Braz da Cunha wanted to give the power set something more memorable than a simple laser effect. Plasma beams from movies, games, and other sources were the inspiration for the style of beam used by this power set. Finally, sound engineer Adam Kay provided a synthetic, futuristic sound with some "grime" added that made the weapon set sound powerful and capable of really doing damage.

Initial Concept
I set out to make Beam Rifle a single-target focused, ranged blast set that deals energy damage. The initial design simply called for powers with secondary effects that had a chance to trigger when used on foes already suffering from the disintegrating effect. However, as players--including myself--tested the set, it became apparent that something was amiss. The chance for secondary effects to trigger, coupled with the fact that the set wasn't competitive in single target damage, was not very satisfying. So we gave all of the powers inherent secondary effects, and gave all effects triggered by disintegrating a 100% chance to go off. After these changes, the set felt better, but it still wasn't quite right.

Final Design
Because a large part of our game relies on hitting multiple foes, it became increasingly obvious that something would need to be done about the Beam Rifle set's AOE damage ability. That's where Disintegrate Spread comes in. Hitting foes suffering from the disintegrating effect with a single target Beam Rifle attack has a chance to spread the disintegrating effect to new targets and causes minor damage over time. These new targets can also be hit with single target Beam Rifle attacks to spread the disintegrating effect to additional targets. The best part is that Beam Rifle users don't have to hit every target with Disintegrate, they just have to allow the disintegrating effect to spread. The result is a power set that is excellent at taking out single targets, but can also deal tremendous AOE damage with a bit of set up, and a bit of luck.