Utility powers in EC

"Considering the TTK (time to kill) is relatively low in EC, how do you think using abilities that do damage over time (poison, for example) or those that stun/immobilize/root/slow enemies will be worthwhile?"

EC is, however, actually similar to any shooter – you don’t have rows of icons to wade through, instead any given debuff, buff or DoT is meaningful and dangerous – something to worry about immediately. To that end, we’re splitting up different types of “buffs” to create the behaviour we want and ensure that we can really put a strong stat budget into each.

Poisons, burning and the like are similar to Dark Souls – they have an accumulation value that affects their mechanics so they can tie more deeply into the roleplaying systems. You can potentially have any number of these (although only 3-4 will be in at launch), but really if you’ve got more than one at a time you’re probably going to be dead almost immediately anyway.

Buffs can come from proximity morale sources (like a banner or hero), or active sources (like a psyker concentrating on you right now). You can only have one of each at a time, because we intend this to be an interesting and meaningful choice. If your Sorcerer is buffing your accuracy at the moment, you’d better start shooting because he’s spending warp charges.

Debuffs are similar to the active buffs – you can only have one at a time because we don’t want to create situations where multiple sorcerers are just piling debuffs on targets. They need to pick the right one for the situation and send in the other troops immediately while they keep it active. A priority system (that differs for each archetype) determines what happens when more than one debuff is on a target.

Healing is treated as its own category where you just see how much your health is increasing right now.
Other effects like environmental damage, suppression, stuns, etc., aren’t really treated like debuffs in the system – the UI and animations should make it very clear what’s happening and the effect is relatively short just like any shooter or action game.