Yogi_Bare

Originally Posted by Tater Todd

Well there are so many factors!

Imps out damage Venus Fly Trap but Fly Trap can take more hits (which was a boost since fly trap would die if you look at it funny a few years ago). Imps push a head damage wise if you can keep them alive but Overall Venus is a better choice since it's great for control and decent damage...and it's a lot like Singy it will protect you if you're in trouble.

No doubt about it Seeds own Flashfire period no debate there!

Roots over cages definitely!

Bonfire...this power gets such a bad rap because it deals crazy KB and it takes a while for it's damage to shore up..also it's not proc friendly BUT it makes Creepers Nervous! With a High Recharge build you can almost get out 3 Bonfires at the same time! 2 Bonfires are the same time is gauranteed! That means almost 260 points of damage unenhanced! but the catch is that's within a minute and 30 seconds...making the power truly only useful with Super tough enemies. If you could turn the power to KD it would be used more for control and damage. So yes Carrion Creepers are better in everyway but Bonfire can be a force if it's used on the right Foe.

(I love laying down two Tornadoes, two Bonfires, Waterspout and Lightning Storm on AVs!)

Originally Posted by Diellan_

Actually, VS is really easy to account for. The little guy deals 44.49 damage every 3.82 seconds (given ArcanaTime), giving it a total contribution of 11.65 dps that is unaffected by recharge or damage buffs (outside enhancements) including Defiance. So you just add that to whatever your chain is, and you're done.

A build operating at +140% recharge can do LB > CB > BL > CB > LB > CB > Zapp for 629.36 damage over 13.068 seconds, which is 48.16 dps. VS bumps that up to 59.81 dps. This is without factoring enhancements, which would bump that up to almost double. The theoretical best chain for LB is CB > LB > CB > BL, which takes a ridiculous amount of recharge to pull off (+278%), and deals 291.53 damage over 5.544 seconds, for 52.58 dps - 64.23 dps with VS.

Originally Posted by dugfromthearth

quick take. Note that "needs no help" means compared to other blasters sets, not compared to other AT's which is a different discussion.

Sonic Blast - used for teaming, does the most total damage there where -res helps everyone. Has a clear niche, needs no help

Originally Posted by Tater Todd

I think that Fire out damages Plant Due to Bonfire...but bonfire is hard to control and the damage is slow. I'm hoping that the -KB proc can breathe new life to Bonfire.

If it does Bonfire will be Fire's best power EVAR.

Originally Posted by Circuit_Boy

The problem with you guys is you toss things out of the calculation that really need to remain in it, like Voltaic Sentinel and Zapp, just because you don't like them.

Your loss.

Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood

Fulmens, I do agree with this. However I think the point that Lothic is trying to make (similar to the point I made a few pages back) is that there are people who enjoy Electrical Blast as it is now and any changes to the set should attempt to avoid breaking how the set plays for them.

Some of the changes proposed in this thread for Short Circuit in particular would probably end up breaking set for those of us who enjoy it now.

In general I would say that any attempt to fix Electrical Blast should probably keep two features:
1. Short Circuit remains as a large area AoE with strong endurance drain and reasonably fast recharge (i.e. recharge shouldn't increase above the current 20 seconds)
2. Voltaic Sentinel should remain a pet of some sort.

I could be wrong but I suspect that most people who like the current iteration of Electrical like it for one of those two reasons. Yes, Short Circuit is a hard power to use, especially on a Blaster, but if you can use it effectively it is extremely powerful. It's got a much wider area than most AoEs and the Endurance Drain is (I think) more powerful than people give it credit for. Similarly VS is power that is unique in that it's a semi-pet in a Blast set. I'm sure some people took Electrical Blast solely for that.


On that note here is how I would change the set. First the small changes:
1. Decrease the cast time for Short Circuit and change it so that it deals about 50% of it's damage up front. This makes it easier and safer for Blasters to use.
2. Increase the damage on VS, possibly by adding a chain effect or just a straight damage boost, decrease the cast time (and maybe change it so it just appears next to you rather than needing a summon location declared)

Now the big one. Remove Aim and replace it with a new power called Charge Up (because I suck at naming things). Charge Up would provide a moderate To Hit Buff (enough to hit FastSnipe with little or no slotting) and a small damage buff (probably less than 20%). Duration would be 30 seconds and recharge 90 seconds. While Charge Up is active Charged Bolts, Lightning Bolt, Zapp and Ball Lighting all have a chance to Chain and hit additional targets. I'm thinking something like 30% for Charged Bolts, 50% for Lightning Bolt, 100% for Zapp and maybe 10% per target for Ball Lightning (the Ball Lightning chain effect would only hit one target for each chain proc, not a full AoE).

The general effect of this change would be two-fold. First Electrical Blast using SOs gets FastSnipe two-thirds of the time on it's own about 90% of the time if Charge Up is cycled with Build Up (you can probably hit 100% with IOs). This would help with the single target strength of the set by allowing it to use Zapp to make up for the lack of a third ST blast. By adding chaining to it's single target attacks and Ball Lightning it gets a bit more AoE strength at range. An IO build with decent recharge should find it possible to get Charge Up permanent giving more options for IO'ing. Finally it doesn't technically break the cottage rule (Charge Up still buffs To Hit and Damage).

Originally Posted by Zombie Man

Problem: City of Devices

While it was a brilliant idea to do two buffs at once, namely, buff Snipe Attacks that has a prerequisite which Blaster Devices can easily meat, and thus, Devices is buffed; it instead has created a problem: Devices have become the go-to secondary for any Blaster that's going to use a Snipe attack.

I'm already seeing the mentality and the builds -- since Devices can perma insta-snipe, then you only take Devices and build around that. The new Blaster min-maxer has emerged: Any-Set-with-Snipe / Devices.

Favored legacy toons may be respecked by some Blasters to access Snipes and use the tools available at level 50 to make it (nearly) perma. But all new Blasters will be some from the Devices.

Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect

A chance to chain added to ALL Electric Blast attacks would probably be a little overpowered.

I was going to keep this to myself, since I PMed Hawk with it directly already (no, he hasn't responded), but I had an idea to add a chain effect to Electric Blast that wouldn't alter too much.

In light of the mechanic introduced with Time Manipulation and used to buff Gravity, my idea was to use that mechanic in Electric Blast.

If you fire your tier 1 or tier 2 blast at an enemy who is affected by Tesla Cage (most Electric Blasters take Tesla Cage, right?), it will have a chance to chain to up to 5 nearby targets.

Note that I said "affected by" not "held by", so it will still work on GMs and AVs who are difficult to hold.

I have no idea how difficult this might be to implement, or if it's even possible, but I thought it would be a thematically cool idea that wouldn't be as potentially overpowered as just adding a chain effect to Electric Blast powers as an inherent ability.

The chance would have to be pretty small (like 10-15%) to avoid being overpowered, but I thought it could be a cool addition to the set. Plus it would look cool to see electricity arc off the ball of Tesla Cage and hit a random target.

I had another suggestion in there as well, but my wife convinced me that one was a bad idea.

Originally Posted by Lurker Hunter

In case Arbiter Hawk comes back in I have a concern to be raised...

Concerns about LRM, specifically. There's the usual shpeal about comparing it to Judgement powers, which are superior in DPA, recharge, and uninterruptability. But my main concern is, because it is a snipe, it does not fire if its target is killed before the charge time is complete. This is a problem when my "anchor" is killed while charging up, yet there are still a ton of baddies around him able to take the damage.

My question, is there a way to modify the power to make it more viable during combat? I understand that it is a highly damaging ancillary power where the trade-off is a less protective ancillary resistance power, but the difficulty in coordinating a strike with your team (or relying on luck to make sure your anchor doesn't die first) makes the power more harmful than helpful.

In the past I've suggested a few ways to help the power out.
- Allow the projectile to fire even if its target is dead.
- Instead of targeting an enemy, target a location.
- Increase the damage done to its target, similar to Thunder Strike. (This would also make it useful during boss fights. It just seems appropriate for rocket launchers to be effective against bosses.)

Though, I totally wouldn't mind if you guys added a Rocket Launcher and/or Minigun themed Judgement instead.

Originally Posted by Codewalker

IMO that's just dancing around the fact that putting Soul Drain in a blaster secondary was just a bad idea, all around.

Originally Posted by Zaloopa

I don't know about this idea. There are times where you want your single target attacks to stay single target. Say you're a lowbie electric blaster on a Death from Below badge run, for the cadaver counter badge you'd have to just not attack at all for the fight for fear of a stray chain killing a minion. Or on a KIR you better hope anti-matter doesn't fly to close to the enemy you're blasting. Granted those are both fairly minor, but they could be an annoyance.

Now if there was a way to have a choice for when it has a chance to chain, then I'd be all for it, because I can think of a lot of situations where it would be very useful.

Originally Posted by Zombie Man

Do you think anyone would use these hoping they'd go off often enough to make the use of a Snipe an insta-snipe?