Ad Astra

Definitely this^.

It's possible that some of the builds you are seeing are left over from before the Great Blaster Changes to Defiance (note the capitals, it was a pretty big change for us).

Before the change to Defiance (can fire Tier 1 & 2 primaries and Tier 1 secondary when mezzed), and a change in the animation (or was it activation?) times for the first 2 blasts in each set, Flares was slower (and even worse in a way, looked much slower due to its animation - cool animation, but like molasses it was) than some other Tier 1 blasts.

Of course, before the change to Defiance, many, many builds across the Blaster primaries skipped the Tier 1 blast due to the minor damage. Skipping it left space for something else, perhaps a power pool pick.

Nowadays, I really, really like firing blasts while mezzed, so I respec'd all my blasters to have the Tier 1 & Tier 2 blasts each & every time.

EDIT to add: I don't regard "Hasten" as a *must have* on some of my blasters. I might come to that conclusion on a Fire/Fire, though, because you need to kill quickly as that is your only mitigation. My Fire/Fire doesn't have it yet, and she's about level 23. I may or may not pick it up later. In fact, on my main blaster (Energy/Elec), I respec'd out of Hasten to get her Tier 1 blast Energy Bolts.

1. OK - in your example of "griefing". One time is NOT griefing unless the player in question says something in chat like "Nyah! Nyah! How didja like that, meleers?"

A second time *might* be griefing if the player was asked to avoid doing that, but it could also be a player who needs more than one spawn to adapt a play style.

The only griefing I will agree with in your example is if there is a pattern (consisting of multiple examples, not just one or two) of doing it. In which case, the leader should rightly kick that offending player.

2. I have to say that in five years of playing an Energy/Electric Blaster, I have never been kicked from a team, nor do I know of anyone who quit a team because of KB. I guess we have just had radically different teaming experiences, so I really don't know what else to say except that you have been on crappy teams.

3. You seem really bothered by Bonfire - you continually use it as your exemple of a KB power. That particular power appears in only 1 powerset - Fire Control, shared by Controllers & Dominators.

What about all the other powersets - most of Energy Blast (Blasters, Defenders, Corruptors), Energy Manipulation, Electricity Manipulation (often overlooked in these discussions), Gravity Control, Kinetics? Some of those sets have at least one power that is *completely* KB, as Fahx mentioned.

Your answer to our questions is we don't really have to learn anything new, "just backpeddle". I rarely "backpeddle", perhaps because I have pushed the foe away and down on his back.

Your other response is that we can always "quit team". How have you added anything to the discussion? If the team leader has a problem with KB now, he/she can boot the offender. If I get too many complaints about KB from the rest of the team, I can "quit team". The only one you have made "happy" with your "solution" is the team leader who has been given control over how I play my character, against my wishes, even if only for a few moments it takes me to "quit team".

You also haven't answered my only slightly sarcastic wish to have a leash on the Scrapper who splits off from the team and brings "friends" back when he returns to us or the Emp who for some reason applies his/her buffs in a manner I do not agree with, or any number of other players whose playstyle does not agree with mine - I mean it would be only fair, right?

Wait - Cat, you aren't going to put on a rebreather and start making funny loud breathing noises, are you?

OP - very nice job! I'm going to go stand in the back over here and hope you don't notice me.

Nobody flamed you.

Why do people see disagreements with their ideas as "flaming"?

Wow - you seriously see that as "griefing"? using your powers in spite of them doing KB on a team? Seriously?

As you probably should if the team is that bothered by them. If they don't understand that your damage comes with a side of KB, and really want you to quit it, then you need to quit them.

I truly don't doubt your experience, but has this happened more than the one time?

It is not "win for everyone". You have now changed how *MY* powers work and I have to relearn them on the fly. I use KB for positioning, not just to stop the baddies from hitting me. Your idea erases that use. So I "lose".

This.

When I respec, given that I am keeping the same powersets (other than the ancillary or patron powersets, I rarely change what I want to enhance on a particular individual power - for example, I keep the PBAoE and I keep the Posi Blast set in that power.

I would like to see one of these builds that has so many powers that are being changed to the point that the IO sets already slotted will not accomplish the goals for the player in the new build. I don't have a build that needs 5 respecs to pull out IOs, but I sure would like to see one for once.

So until I see examples, I agree with Zombie Man that folks are overstating the problem.

Completely agree again on this, Fahx.

Someone else can control my character's powers only if I can in turn control those of others. Like that pesky Scrapper - can I put a leash on him/her so he/she stays with the group instead of going ahead to aggro another spawn? Or the Defender who insists on Fortituding the Tank instead of ME! - I want to be Fort'ed, SB'd, AM'd. etc., first and foremost, NVM whether it would be "good" for the rest of team? And that Tank should stay 10 yeards ahead of ME at all times to make sure no aggro'd mobs get past him/her and in my face. Oh, and the second Tank should stay 10 yards behind me to take care of ambush aggro.

Allowing one player to control the character of another player in any way, shape, or form remains a hugely BAD idea.

This is pretty close to my opinion as well.

I hate it when people come into threads and make statements that seem to say the only source of Necro or Dark or a couple of other powersets *must* be from some magic item. No, they don't. Not only do those powers work just fne as coming inherently from within the character (Bill's descriptions above are classic) but there may also be a NON-MAGICAL source for them - after all, Vazh are not magical zombies.

Wands as an alternate animation across ATs - sure, why not, *if* BaBs can get it done without sacrificing other cooler things, like whole new powersets. But not limited to MMs, please. My characters who might wield a wand are Blasters and Corruptors and Defenders, only one is a MM. There is no reason to limit something like Wands to a single AT.

As far as the second thing Bill quoted,

Speak for yourself - my MMs have short attention spans and "always" go in guns ablazing. Just standing back and watching the bots or thugs or zombies have all the carnage-inducing fun sounds like the most boring thing in the world - may as well go watch a Steven Seagal movie.

Not my main, but I've always liked her backstory.

Cue syrupy Elton John song about cute lil lion cub....

(ya, I *could* search for it on YouTube, but y'all know the one I mean & I'm feeling a bit lazy tonight).

You have to go into the SG settings from the SG window to change the colors & symbol.

Note that if you try to reuse the same banner (i.e., Small Tech Banner 1) after changing the colors & symbol, all the instances of that banner change as well. So if you want a rainbow of colors & symbols, make sure to use Small Tech Banner 1, Small Tech Banner 2, etc., for each set of different colors.

Thanks, Arcanaville. I knew there had been some change to weapon redraw that seemed to speed things up, but was really fuzzy on the details.