Windenergy21

You missed the point, i never said the POWER itself cant be perma'd. But using it for its defiance bonus the power recharges crazy long as that use, especially with its set up time.

Secondly, i've explained how t-drone could risk-free get the buff. Especially considering how it does absolutely nothing for the actual set of devices and only goes on to the primary of the blaster for one. Taking some of those defiance bonus values from the other said powers would help to balance if you had any issue on how this would work.

Its all about the numbers/values/recharges/side effects. You can't say something will be bad just because its common/uncommon.

And yeah, i never take fly on my blasters, and don't know that many who do/use hover in combat.

A true blaster uses cj/hurdle.

I have an energy/ice blaster i'm making for regneration level regeneration, and he only gets hover to achieve this and turn the knockback into knockdown, thus creating the only blaster i have/will have that uses hover.

And as far as porting goes, i'd much rather see dark blast ported over to blasters. Rad is pretty much what fire blast is only with different side effects of -def instead of damage. Now i wouldn't complain for sure, but i'd rather see dark blast.

Unlike the psy version, i'd assume it would remain aim-less to compensate for its debuff/mitigation tools. That or get aim in place of dark pit in a likewise fashion.

Which i don't think anyone would complain having those powers lose a lot of their defiance if targetting drone gave a constant damage buff.

And its not the animation that gives gun drone the high defiance boost, well partially, but its mostly its insanely long recharge when trying to use it in that fashion.

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And a perma damage buff on it would NOT be overpowered. Many sets get just that in a perma-able form. Claws, Dual blades, heck ever super strength gets an 80% perma damage buff. For a set like devices where the buff wouldnt even carry over to anything in its own set that is justified easily IMO.

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The only problem with these examples is that these perma damage buffs come from the attack set. As such those sets are balanced around them. Without perma-Rage, an SS tank is pretty much bringing a pillow to a gun fight.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love a damage bonus in TD, because /Dev is easily my favourite blaster secondary, but what would we have to give up to get it. The Devs are (probably) not going to give out something like that for free.

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How about the sets already HIDEOUSLY long set up times which are INTERUPTIBLE.

yes, powers like those are in the primary set. But with blasters, their secondary is really truly closest to an offset of their primary. As such, the damage buff would work the same to all primaries. And as it stands already all the pets of devices would not get the buff anyways as its a toggle damage buff and the cycling time of the buff would not last long enough to affect them. Therefore the damage boost directly only affects the primary of the blaster.

He was speaking on its cast time, which i totally agree on. It should summon with a wave of the hand or whatever much like bots do for a MM.

Likewise with trip mine and time bomb. Theyre not bad powers, but the setup is what KILLS being a devices blaster.

They need to make trip mine work like proximity mines on the old 007 game for goldeneye, just aim and throw it down like you do caltrops. Nice and quick 1ish second animation.

As for time bomb, that should have trip mines 4 second set up time, and have the wait time shortened to at least 10 seconds if not 5. Do not forget with that long of a time it is not gaining any buff you have before you cast it still.

These changes would improve devices use GREATLY on teams.

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Hey AncientSpirit, I was thinking of doing a Energy/Devices before I did my Fire/Devices, but I didn't think the KB would mesh well with the Traps.

Just out of curiousity how does it play? Might make it my next Blaster after I finish up the Fire/Devices.

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Energy/devices makes for a very fun blaster. And actually the knockback meshes better with "devices" because when enemies are being stubborn you can knock them into the mines you've laid down. That really only pertains to trip mine, as you're not going to interrupt time bomb's use, and the kb doesnt affect any other power in the set.

I have a fire/dev also which i love. But i am very interested in running the energy/dev for said reasons. It is a very fun build, the only thing that bugs me is not having an aoe attack that doesnt cause knockback when on teams. But caltrops + the knockback makes it one of the safest blasters. The build also lets me pick up taser which is an interesting power, for fun but has its uses like spectral daemon lord LTs.

The only recourse for me not doing it is that i also wanted to try energy/ice for shiver + knockback and snagging a melee attack in there. Of all the nukes as well i'm a big believer that nova kinda needs build up too, to make sure it kills off everything otherwise you just end up with a group thats not killed and is scattered all over (lts of course minnions will clearly be dead either way) But that depends on what level you're fighting and what enemy types.

Also that i wanted to try an arch/dev, and don't think i'd want to do more than 2 /dev characters.

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I have a strong opinion on the topic. I have deleted one character over level 20, I think, ever. It was a L29 fire/dev blaster.

My other fire/* blasters are fire/ice at 35 and 19, fire/elec at 50, fire/en at 50 . So it's not the primary.

A blaster generally does about 50% more damage (when free to go postal at any time for no reason) than a scrapper using their primary and secondary combined. This is based on almost 150 levels of Force Field defender.

A blaster using their primary ONLY can do, maybe, 10% more damage than a Scrapper. The rest comes from melee attacks, Build Up, etc. - none of which Devices has.

Devices mostly has Trip Mines and Time Bombs, for damage. These take a high-damage-per-second class and add a lot of seconds sitting around doing no damage.

It is possible that two /Dev blasters can get good results by setting one Time Bomb each, in the same way that two Elec/ Blasters can get good results by both using Short Circuit at the same time.

But I didn't stick around to try it.

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/devices is a lot there for fun. I would never do a toon blaster who didn't get at least aim or build up. AR is a nice set, its best paired IMO with ice manipulation.

As far as Fulmen's argument, they REALLY need, and about time, they gave targetting drone a 40% damage buff to it. Would end a ton of complaints about the set, especially in the later levels.

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A permanant Damage boost to targeting drone would lead to endless complaints of how OP it is. And 40% is jsut to much of a damage boost to give perma also. About 25% would be more balanced. Also its to hit would have to be reduced to about 4% also as the power would have to provide the same overall over time effectiveness as Buildup. And it gets a 13.9% To Hit Continuously to compensate for it not adding Damage.

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I think it should be a permanent damage boost, but at a reasonable level. Figure AIM gives a 50% damage boost for 10 seconds every minute. If you really enhance AIM so that it can be used every 30 seconds, you're getting a roughly 15% or so damage boost overall. A 15% damage boost isn't overpowering since all damage boosts are based off of base damage, not enhanced damage.

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Um, aim is a 62.5% damage boost for starters, and much higher of a to hit buff. And having the toggle damage boost is better overall, by purpose, like all the others, because you are sacrificing burst damage for consistency.

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And it gets a 13.9% To Hit Continuously to compensate for it not adding Damage.


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Apparently you haven't read about the recent nerf to targeting drone?

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A permanant Damage boost to targeting drone would lead to endless complaints of how OP it is. And 40% is jsut to much of a damage boost to give perma also. About 25% would be more balanced. Also its to hit would have to be reduced to about 4% also as the power would have to provide the same overall over time effectiveness as Buildup. And it gets a 13.9% To Hit Continuously to compensate for it not adding Damage.

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That was to the epic version only IIRC. Last i checked the blaster version was still 13.875% to hit bonus.

And a perma damage buff on it would NOT be overpowered. Many sets get just that in a perma-able form. Claws, Dual blades, heck ever super strength gets an 80% perma damage buff. For a set like devices where the buff wouldnt even carry over to anything in its own set that is justified easily IMO.

And the to hit wouldnt need reduced, when the set is already lacking. Its an improvement, not a swap. If you are that concerned about the actual power, they can just as easily put the damage boost in cloaking device but it would make far less sense in there.

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I have a strong opinion on the topic. I have deleted one character over level 20, I think, ever. It was a L29 fire/dev blaster.

My other fire/* blasters are fire/ice at 35 and 19, fire/elec at 50, fire/en at 50 . So it's not the primary.

A blaster generally does about 50% more damage (when free to go postal at any time for no reason) than a scrapper using their primary and secondary combined. This is based on almost 150 levels of Force Field defender.

A blaster using their primary ONLY can do, maybe, 10% more damage than a Scrapper. The rest comes from melee attacks, Build Up, etc. - none of which Devices has.

Devices mostly has Trip Mines and Time Bombs, for damage. These take a high-damage-per-second class and add a lot of seconds sitting around doing no damage.

It is possible that two /Dev blasters can get good results by setting one Time Bomb each, in the same way that two Elec/ Blasters can get good results by both using Short Circuit at the same time.

But I didn't stick around to try it.

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/devices is a lot there for fun. I would never do a toon blaster who didn't get at least aim or build up. AR is a nice set, its best paired IMO with ice manipulation.

As far as Fulmen's argument, they REALLY need, and about time, they gave targetting drone a 40% damage buff to it. Would end a ton of complaints about the set, especially in the later levels.

Regeneration. Oh what a lovely thing. It keeps us healthy, without doing anything! So, me being me, bored at work with access to nothing but the calculator app., decided to see what it takes between different regeneration rates, to help you know how much from bonuses and powers you need to achieve a certain rate.

The base regeneration rate, is .42%/sec. You will always heal a tic of 5% of your total health when this time is reached. At a base rate, this means that 5%/.42% = a tic every 11.905 seconds base.

Lovely thing with regeneration, is that the more +hp you have, the more hp/sec you will regenerate as well, while not at a faster rate as this increases, but your hit points will be higher each time this occurs.

So, how much is enough, what are you trying to achieve? When looking at your build, you have to think, what powers do you have? What IOs grant how much of which bonuses to max out your regen. While every bit of +regen bonus helps overall, there are certain milestones for which to notice reasonably.

For starters, for any decent +regen build, i always start with the health ability. Granting 40% regen to start and enhanceable within reason to about 78% regeneration.

Off the bat, we're at 178% regeneration. With base this means that adding and slotting health equals 5/(.42 x 1.78) = a tic every 6.69 seconds. Not too shabby for such a simple power. Now with regen, the best part, is with builds that have no self healing ability. Things like shield defense, blasters, storm controllers etc can get great use out of regeneration bonuses. So much so to this date I have had one toon that used aid self, pre-IOs, but post Will be respecced, and will never have another medicine pool toon again, yay!

But back down to business, How much regen is enough? Well, i always say the more the better! But there are those special milestones that just ooze fun. Now one thing i always noticed, was between the regen nerfs. With integration, fast healing and the like. Always noticed health + fast healing took to about a tic every 4 seconds. Integration a few issues ago took that to a tic every 2 seconds, and in the current form takes about a tic every 3 seconds.

This short gaps led to notice just how much of a difference the tic rates mean. So For any build that really can use the +regen, more is better :P.

So without adue, here are the amount of bonuses you need with health included to reach the certain tic/sec value milestones

1 tic every (___) second: (BTW 1.78 is base and health value)

1: (5/1)/.42 - 1.78 = 1012% regen (obviously really only with willpower and regen but now you know!

2: (5/2)/.42 - 1.78 = 418% (rounded up)

3: (5/3)/.42 - 1.78 = 219%

4: (5/4)/.42 - 1.78 = 120% (this is usually the value that most builds going for regen with no outside +regen power besides health try to achieve for)

5: (5/5)/.42 - 1.78 = 60.1% (obviously easier to achieve, and still quite useful)

6: (5/6)/.42 - 1.78 = 20.4%

So those are the values to strive for. I've found the easiest way to achieve these, is with any ranged attack with some devastation/entropic chaos/2 purples. Efficacy adaptor in stamina, numinas in health. You can use 2 cheap scirocco dervish in any pbaoe attack. Any pet class that deals damage can fairly cheaply get 2 pet purples and another set (i think brilliant leadership) getting 20% right there for only 4 slots and maxing most stats you need from them.

If you wanted a quick easy result, a numina unique, numina heal, and regen tissue unique, and 4 efficacy adaptors in stamina along with maxed value on health, is an easy way to reach that 60% regeneration bonus, to grant that quick tic/5 second milestone that any build can achieve.

Its a wonderful tool to help your character stay alive for doing nothing but keeping enemies dead, and mitigated, and i'm righteously grateful for it. Now if only they'd make more purples that had that lovely 16% regen bonus :P Too many have the 4% recovery IMO, MORE REGEN! Enjoy!

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After introduction of IO, some of the characteristics of device can be acquired through IO, for example targeting drone and cloaking device. Blasters don't need to go to device for such features. One can argue that IO bonus can add on top of device abilities. But I think it's true to a certain extent that device lost some of its attractiveness now.

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Maybe among the farmers who can afford to spend the huge amounts of Inf needed for such sets. For us regular Blasters, /Devices is great and, if we were able to duplicate some of the abilities (though never all) of the abilities via IO sets, it wouldn't be until very late in the character's life, anyways.

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Also, Targeting Drone gives you To-Hit Debuff resistance, which I don't think you can get from IOs. And yes, you can get stealth from IOs easily enough, but with Cloaking Device, you can get virtual invisibility, letting you boombox amidst mobs if you want. Some people will say "you don't need CD because Superspeed and an IO gives you that", but that's assuming you take Superspeed. My AR/Dev has Superjump. Adding the stealth IO to Combat Jumping lets it stack with Cloaking Device and give him invisibility.

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Um... you can still get the stealth power on any other blaster adn mix with a stealth IO for invisibility for just one power pick as well, with superjump. Now sure it has that small speed penalty, but like you said you took combat jumping. That and hurdle, i've never noticed much of a slowdown when jumping because of stealths -speed.

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After introduction of IO, some of the characteristics of device can be acquired through IO, for example targeting drone and cloaking device. Blasters don't need to go to device for such features. One can argue that IO bonus can add on top of device abilities. But I think it's true to a certain extent that device lost some of its attractiveness now.

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Maybe among the farmers who can afford to spend the huge amounts of Inf needed for such sets. For us regular Blasters, /Devices is great and, if we were able to duplicate some of the abilities (though never all) of the abilities via IO sets, it wouldn't be until very late in the character's life, anyways.

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What? Thunderstrikes, especially mid-level ones can be pretty cheap. For most sets that have 3 ranged attacks thats 21% bonus to accuracy right there, plus for how cheap it is to frankenslot to get superior accuracy slotted in each attack if you wanted to continue to be cheap about it. Add on the kimset unique in combat jumping. Very easy to bypass the need for targetting drone.

Because people are inconsiderate XD

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What primary are you playing that doesnt have a full attack chain? And are you suggesting the only way to massive damage on a blaster is by going into melee?


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Try playing an elec blaster and telling me you don't need another single target attack like one you'd get from melee. Why do you think elec/dev is so LOL.

And to whoever wondered, yes, cloaking device + superspeed or a stealth IO will let you plant time bomb in the mob and go unnoticed. I usually count to 11 seconds then start placing a trip mine as well for extra damage.

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I'd like to see TD give a damage boost too. The reasoning could be that with TD, you're able to more accurately place your attacks for maximum damage. A 20% damage boost should be good. While it sounds a bit high, it's really only a 20% boost on base damage, bringing it up to about a 10% boost overall if you slot your attacks in the typical fashion of hitting the ED caps for roughly another 95% damage.

I guess it could be scaled back a little since it does give a significant boost to accuracy, which could let you scale back on accuracy a bit and substitute recharge, increasing your damage output. Also, the perception boost is something that can't be ignored. It doesn't happen often, but when you do come up against foes like Arachnos with their blinding grenades, you can often be crippled during a battle since you can't see your opponents. Yes, you could pop a yellow, but when you're in those missions where those mobs appear, they appear with great regularity, often making you need to pop a yellow very few minutes.

Like I mentioned, one thing about devices is that it does have powers that aren't replicated in the other secondaries. TD is one, the stealth suit is another. Smoke Grenade is slightly unique in that it gives a To-Hit debuff, though not large. If slotted, it could make a noticeable difference if you have defense bonuses from IO sets and the bit of defense from the stealth suit.


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Actually given, powers like follow up etc, should be a 37.5% - 40% damage boost for targetting drone, and yeah has been needed for a long time now.

For one extra slot you get 10% regen and 1.13% max hp, thats, and 1.5% recovery for giggles if you don't "need" it. Thats WELL worth that extra slot IMO.

I was kinda expecting more of an IO solution.

There are very few sets that i would really consider to not take stamina. Emp defenders is one that kinda can, any /kin can, regen and willpower yes, and then the afformentioned combos like ice/dark tanks who get double end gain powers and such.

Then as to those who get stamina (and QR) i always 4 slot it. If its a toon that needs the regen, i go for 4 efficacy adaptors, granting 1.5% recovery, 1.13% max hp, and 10% regen.

If its a toon that needs recovery more, or needs more max hp, such as things like willpower, or any set like fire armor, regen, or thermal/empathy/radiation who has a fast recharging self heal, i use 4 performance shifters for 2.5% recovery, 1.88% max hp, and as an unnecessary, but fun (and useful on stone armor) grants 5% movement bonus.

Both 4 slotted stamina instances of course get to the 96%ish end mod enhanced value cap.

Any chance they can update the patch notes so we can see exactly whats changing, you know, to read the changes while waiting for them to bring the servers back up.

Recharge from set IOs. And no, its far from overpowering, if making it much worth it at all at this point.

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In most solo controller situations? The "gee, this game is kind of easy, I just wish I were doing damage faster" situations? Yes, I'm saying precisely that. If I don't need to give Audrey regeneration, recovery, or movement debuff protection, then ABing her is equivalent to CMing her on a demon farm. Not worth the keystroke.

In team situations, you're absolutely right, I'd be ABing a teammate anyway, but it's the solo situations I'm concerned about.

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Exactlty my concern too. I hope the devs aren't calling this end all. I'd REALLY like to play my earth/kin and ice/emp, but considering the main reason i wanted to was to play with boosting the pets recharge, then it really defeats the purpose.

Not to mention how shotty it would be to just leave it at this, and not find a way to actually fix the problem. I've mentioned before the possibility of having a complete, SET attack chain for pets. That way recharge or not they would be diong the same chain, so recharge would help, and not mess up any AI problems. And then fix the certain powers dam/rech to make the attack chain flow without those recharge buffs of course, but then likewise as i've been saying forever, to let slotting recharge into pets increase the pets attack rate as well.

so quick question. Becasue its entirely unfair to just not have powers like AB/SB and AM affect pets recharges, you ARE going to keep working on how to fix the "issue" and let those powers buff pets still right? You're not just saying "never again will they be boosted by +recharge"

Also, back to the original please look into boosting pets recharges of their attacks using recharge enhancements.

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Short answer: they're not. But the powers are being affected in a way that they were never intended to be. Add in the AI glitch with henchmen, and this fix deals with both issues at once.


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Thats the problem right there. As i've been saying since i5, it SHOULD be intended that recharge enhancements of any kind increase pets attack rates. I've been suggesting this since then, and it still remains to be a good idea IMO.

The "lag/cycle" issues is the bug, having recharge increase pets attack rate is the part that SHOULD have been INTENTIONALLY implimented.

not sure on that jib if it would reduce/increase. But there are two certainties. for pets like VS, imps, LS, and AT who only have one atttack, it woudlnt affect their "ai" by having their ONLY attack increased.

Secondly, i've said it before but for some pets like jack, give them a SET attack chain. That way the AI isnt computing, it just follows the list. Itll be effective, and it would let recharges help them more by doing so, and reduce computations necessary. The only computation it would have to worry about for say jack, is to decide between melee, and override if its forced to be at range (ie flying enemy, can only use ice bolt)

Additionally this would let recharge still help pets like imps and such where they are really valuable.

Additionally, though this should NOT be the option IMO, is for pets like imps, VS, LS, and AT is to increase their base recharge, and for something like imps possibly give them fire sword or another attack. I've always seen/wanted imps to get fire blast. Would help them out a lot when they can't get into melee. Still have their ai melee oriented, but would give them a much better purpose for those *tough* to melee enemies. Things like LS/VS/AT would just have a simple attack rate reduction. Especially VS ugh.

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Perhaps some time away from math, spreadsheets and tables would do Castle some good, pick up a character and play it on live.

[/ QUOTE ] This is why sometimes player experience will trump the numbers they get from so called datamine. I cant believe for one minute that anyone is using VS, Gun Drone or LS in an overpowered way. I am still waiting for what the real reason is behind this nerf because the stated reasons dont make sense at all when everyone knows those powers are subpar in what they do.

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I'm still waiting for wednesday to come and them say "APRIL FOOLS" Because that's all this could possibly be, is a joke, cause it has nowhere near enough bearings to be legitimate, rational, nor fair.

Outside of the list that i have, i can already think of my baby earth/kin, and ice/emp that i was going to SPECIFICALLY play, to have fun with boosting the pets recharge, which are now completely useless. And looks like i'll probably never play my ice/kin again now as well. Or actually to think about it any /kin.

Emp as a troller secondary in general is now pretty much completely useless when compared to thermal.

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Post Deleted by Moderator_08

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Because it doesn't affect you. So why are you even putting your 2 cents in when it means nothing. Please delete your post until you actually play a controller that this affects.