Samuel_Tow

Let's not bring that here. Psychic Shockwave has been in the mouths of people for years same as Smoke Grenade once was. That's all I'm going to say about it.

As far as Blaze goes, I know Castle has his eye on it. If it gets slowed down, I won't be one bit surprised, as everyone will alternately agree either that it's REALLY GREAT or that it seems faster than an attack of this scale should be. I happen to be from the latter group, but then I also feel that Bitter Ice Blast is too fast and Bitter Freeze Ray too slow.

None of which should have to come to play, however. I don't believe a tradeoff is in order for upping Snipe performance. Sure, either a cost or a recharge increase would be in order, but I'm personally fine with that. Fickle as snipes are, I'd rather they carried more punch for when I DID get to use them, rather than being usable very often when the OPPORTUNITY to use them isn't always there. Plus, it's a snipe. It SHOULD make me shout "Boom! Headshot!" every time I fire it

I got directed to this thread, so there you go.

I've never believed that Blasters were broken. They've always been playable, even with the original Defiance. It's just that... They sucked. Bad. Never have I felt such rage at playing a character as I did trying to get my old Blaster a few more levels back in the day (with the possible exception of Mako's Fonts of Power vs. my Mastermind). Yes, the improved Defiance and upped damage scale helped a lot, but they failed to address the core of the problem, in my opinion - Blasters just don't measure up to other ATs.

Let me explain. I'm typically a Scrapper player, it's how I usually roll. When I accidentally stumble into around a corner and bump into a boss, my reaction usually is a long the lines of "Oh... Boss. Cool, bring it." Not so on my Blaster. When I do the same, my reaction is more along the lines of "Crap! A boss! Not good not good not good!" It's around about that time I realise I feel like a wimp, and probably act like one, too. And, my friends, that's not how I enjoy playing this game. That's not why I made all the Blasters I did. I picked Blasters because of the raw power they wield that none can even come close to. Yet, in actual practice, lacking staying power as I do, I never actually get to USE that power before I'm dead.

When I play a Scrapper, I have confidence in my ability. I know I can take care of myself, know that even if things get heated, I can still respond and eventually triumph. With a Blaster, not only is that never the case, I KNOW my limitations all too well. I know that I barely have the power to handle what I'm already facing, and even then to a large extent if I get lucky, and that any added trouble will simply be far, far out of my hands. I don't like that feeling. I don't mind losing, itself. Hell, I've had the time of my life with Soul Transfer. What I mind is knowing I can't win, and knowing that, were I using even the crappiest of my Scrappers, I'd be able to walk all over the enemies without breaking a sweat.

Blasters, to me, progress in a really, really rotten fashion. In the low levels where enemies aren't very dangerous and damage is king, they rule without question. Yet as the levels come and everything changes, my Blasters get weaker and weaker and weaker. In the 30s, it's disappointing. In the 40s, it's depressing. At 50, I just wash my hands from the whole thing and go play something that doesn't die at the drop of a hat.

Blasters play without ANY staying power whatsoever. That's fine when one can pump out enough damage to not need to stand and fight for very long. But game balance dictates I shouldn't be able to do that. It dictates that a boss, powerful and durable as he is, shouldn't be defeatable quickly, making use of my prime strength, but rather has to be beaten down in a stand-and-fight scenario, or even worse - a hit-and-run one that takes BLOODY AGES. Blasters are designed to hit hard and hit fast, so when faced with targets that cannot be hit hard and fast, yet hit back harder and faster than they can... Things aren't pretty.

I know Blasters are playable. I never claimed they weren't, and I know they're a lot better now than they were before. I cannot, however, understand how you can claim they're easy mode, not for the life of me. Maybe you're using a cleverly-designed collection of Inventions Sets, I don't know, but my experience has shown me that, for comparable builds and slotting, Scrappers, Stalkers, Brutes and (obviously) Masterminds can take on more, harder enemies with less effort and less danger. To me, that just isn't good.

What would I do to fix this? Hell if I know. Can't raise their hit points (by much), can't give them powers for free that other ATs have to spend power picks on, can't raise their damage (by much - still want to see Snipes strengthened). I guess the only thing I could see is a resistance (to everything) buff added to each defiance buff as we fight. Not something major, certainly not resistance cap or anything close. But a few percent here, a few percent there, stacked with each other to provide some token amount would help.

I really like Blasters and the power they wield, but I REALLY hate it when I don't get to use it.

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Such as AVs and GMs? CoX is solo-friendly, but I hardly think it's unreasonable that there are some opponents that are best faced by a team.

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Such as bosses that can two-shot you with any two of their attacks. Oh, what joy I find when I get hit with an Incendiary Missile Swarm in the face then shot with a Quad Plasma Barrage in the back as I'm moving out of the burn patch, all neatly put together in an enemy that's heavily resistant to half the damage types in the whole damn game. Far as I'm concerned, that should be an elite boss and spawn as frequently. The one in Daedalu's mission, with its three ambushes of still more Malta, most certainly applies.

Heck, everything by its strength rating. I don't mind elite bosses with my Blasters. Yes, they suck, but they're rare enough (one every few missions even in the upper 40s) and can be prepared for. A few every mission might not sit as well with me, even though I survived Maria Jenkins' "Hero's Hero."

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Or perhaps the new proper way has not been discovered yet. Good luck with your efforts.

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I can't imagine what that way might even be, unless I stumble upon another crippling AI quirk. I'm certainly going to keep looking, as I like Crimson and his mission-arcs, and maybe bringing up a Blaster that isn't Lethal or Energy damage might help. But really, they're just irredeemably tough. Vanguard are nasty, but only if you let them come close, which means at least you can play keepaway. Malta used to be nasty unless you keep close to them, which is no longer the case. The Vahzilok of the lower levels are tough but stupid and can be separated and fought individually, plus they have a SERIOUS weakness to lethal damage.

I'd love to find an approach that doesn't rely on lots and lots of inspirations, I just can't imagine what that might be.

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Hmm. So Dominator Snipes are going to be "the equivalent" of 3.0 damage scale Blaster Snipes.

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In other words, Snipes stronger than those of the "damage kings"

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Good news... I suspect that Dom snipes are the test case and Blaster snipes will "catch up" if it turns out to be a good change after it's been live for a month or two. Or maybe Blaster snipes will catch up next patch.

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That's a very good way of looking at it. Really, if that works out for Doms, and the changes I see being made to them are about as far away from conventional balance as I've seen yet so I hope they do, that might spell an increase for Blasters, as well. I remember how Dual Blades was announced to be the set to test if extracting recharge out of power animations was viable and meaningful, and a few months later other sets began to receive the same treatment.

Personally, I still have a few issues with Blasters even after all the positive changes, and I strongly suspect a change to make Snipes as powerful as I feel they should be would fix most, if not all of them. I don't want to get into the specific, but to say that a Snipe which makes such a big deal about itself really SHOULD hit like a train

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It's funny because a lot of Dominators took the snipe just to mule an IO set for Permadom. I wonder just how much damage they will do after the base damage boost Dominators are getting in the future. I might have to include blazing bolt on my new Earth/Fire dom.

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Well, their damage mod is going up from 0.65 to 0.95 and the snipes are going from 2.76 to 3.56. If my math is correct (don't have my useful links here), then the increase in damage would be around 90%, all told, so about twice more out of domination. I wish I could check Iakona's power numbers charts to give you an actual damage points change.

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I still wish they would do something about the lengthy time the power takes to animate.

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If the powers do THIS much damage, I can live with the animation time. It's worth it. Ain't been a power of this magnitude on a high-damage AT before, with the possible exception of Greater Fire Sword.

On to the meat of the subject: The guide! I'd like to start out by saying that this is a very nice write up, and I want to thank you for making it. I did have a few observations:

Archery: I'd emphasise the added base accuracy for Archery power much more. It is SIGNIFICANT. At 1.155 inherent power accuracy, you're going to be shooting high-level stuff and hitting through defences with a LOT greater ease. I've taken on enemies +2 and +3 with just DOs and still barely missed a shot. In my eyes, this is the single greatest strength of archery - you can rely on it to never miss anything, or come very close to it, and it doesn't take much to get there.

Assault Rifle: There are a couple of things worth noting - more than most other Blaster sets, Assault Rifle's AoE potential depends on positioning very heavily. Full Auto is a very narrow, very long cone best used from far away, as close to its maximum range as you can get without leaving anyone off, as the arc is widest at the end. Flamethrower, by comparison, is a very wide, relatively short cone best used from close range and against a broadside of enemies. Buckshot is somewhere inbetween, and M30 isn't range-dependent. Assault Rifle AoE really depends on positioning.

Additionally, you should really caution about combining the set with its thematic partner - Devices. As Assault Rifle lacks Aim and single-target attacks and Devices lacks Build Up and conventional attacks, this produces a combo that REALLY struggles with bosses and ends up relying on time-consuming, laborious combos. Targeting Drone does provide a not-insignificant damage boost to Sniper Rifle (something you may want to mention) but it's not enough to offset things. The combo ends up as a quasi-Controller that can face some particularly irritating problems.

It's also probably worth mentioning that Assault Rifle works very well with Munitions Mastery. Not only does the set not suffer redraw from the pool, Surveillance actually supplants the sets single-target weakness by offering a single-target resistance and defence debuff.

Electrical Blast: Thunderous Blast has lower-than-average damage, assumedly to make up for it being ranged. Might be worth mentioning that.

Energy isn't as rarely resisted as it seems. Anyone in good-condition power armour will have some resistance to it, including Crey Tanks, Rikti Chiefs and, most notably, Malta Titans. It's not OFTEN resisted, going by number of enemies, but those that resist it tend to be NASTY, especially for a Blaster.

Voltaic Sentinel should probably receive a cautionary warning. The little blue guy is untargetable and uncontrollable, meaning it will shoot at all enemies in range whether you wanted it to attack or not, and all aggro it generates is coming to YOU, because it cannot be attacked. Starting a fight unprepared is one of the worst things that can happen to a Blaster, and Voltaic Sentinel wouldn't think twice about doing just that if given the chance.

Also, you might want to give the set a little more credit for control outside of endurance drain, because it has a full hold where many other sets have to make do with a stun. Few things are resistant to holds, but many are resistant to stuns - the Anathema and Malta's Titans, for instance, fit that description.

Energy Blast: Random chance for knockback isn't as good a source of mitigation as you make it out to be. Make no mistake, it's GOOD, but far from "the best." A solid hold or two or plain killing stuff in one volley is both easier and tends to be more reliable. As well, it might be worth mentioning that, to get full mileage out of knockback mitigation, you REALLY want to use Power Push as often as you can. It really is a nasty power if abused.

Also, Smashing isn't as often resisted as it seems, and in fact many things are weak to it. Many robots are weak to it, as are hard targets like rocks. As well, many targets resistant to Lethal aren't resistant to smashing, too. Not a big deal, but worth mentioning.

Fire Blast: You vastly understate Fire's AoE potential. Fireball does more damage than conventional targeted AoEs, but Breath of Fire does around 50% more damage than a comparable cone, and all fire. It is, therefore, worth mentioning that with anything other than Devices, a Build Up + Aim + Fireball + Fire Breath combo is enough to level most spawns and leave only stragglers, or at the very least deliver SERIOUS damage when on a team.

You should also mention that Rain of Fire's scatter effect can be very dangerous to a team as it causes enemies that the Tanker may have gathered together to flee and shoot at you from range, making regaining control of them difficult. It delivers a lot of damage, but at a significant risk.

Also, Fire's form of control is MDK. Unlike most other sets, a Fire Blaster can kill stuff dead with frightening speed, and dead stuff don't shoot back. That's probably worth mentioning, as it's essentially the only fast way to solo one.

Ice Blast: I wouldn't be as critical on Ice Blast's AoE potential. A slow or AoE immobilize power, say something like Shiver, can keep enemies almost motionless inside your rain, but even just a combo of Frost Breath + Ice Storm can keep those not resistant to slows in for most of its duration, and the two together do an impressive amount of damage. Sure, they cost a lot to use, but they are very effective. Remember - both Forst Breath and Ice Storm debuff run speed.

It's also probably worth mentioning that Bitter Freeze Ray and Freeze Ray can (and should) be stacked to hold a boss, something NO other Blaster primary can achieve on its own, and having two holds can go a long way towards being safer.

Not enough experience with Psi or Sonic to comment.

I hope this doesn't come out like a put-down lecture. I really do believe those are all worth mentioning. You have a very nice guide there, and it was a good read.

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I don't know myself what the current redraw status is for AR and Archery. To tell the truth, when I wrote it I was thinking more of the annoyance factor than about any penalty. It'd be great to have a definitive answer. I'll poke around a bit in the forums and the wiki and see if I can find one. It would be a good thing to mention, one way or the other.

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The only developer statement on redraw came from BAB, and that was when he said redraw can add up to 0.67s to cast time. It was in an Archery thread, but he didn't specify whether that was only for Archery, or across all weapon sets, or whether it was a specific power or powers, just that redraw "can add up to 0.67s to the cast time".

That is currently the only information on whatever "redraw penalty" may exist.

It is noteworthy, however, that even if this 0.67s were applied to all powers in all weapon sets, the average cast time should still be faster relative to when many (most?) weapon attacks had additional redraw time "baked in".

My take on it, as a player who spends the majority of time playing a weapon set paired with a weaponless set: it's not even noticeable unless you're using two weapon sets (like Bots/TA with personal attacks) or constantly switching back and forth between weapon and weaponless powers. In either case, the player is more likely to be inconvenienced and irritated by the rather craptastic results of playing badly than by redraw.

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Last I heard, BABs rooted all "redraw pauses" from all weapon sets, Assault Rifle included. It used to be that the cast time would be the same whether you had the weapon out or not, but this is no longer the case. These days it's a safe bet that any powerset which includes a weapon will run faster if you don't have to redraw.

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I have never seen an AV, GM, or Sniper run out of an Ignite patch. AVs and GMs have huge resistance to Avoid, it seems, and this can work against them.

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"Avoid" is a status effect that AVs and GMs simply resist, so they don't run away (for the most part). Snipers CANNOT run away, as they have an inherent power that immobilizes them completely. I've heard tales of friendly snipers gaining the ability to move when buffed with Clear Mind.

Oh, I agree. It's more trouble than it's worth. I'm not sure why they got in trouble for the offline editor when it didn't come with a game attached to it and was little more than a blank sheet of paper with a few stencils, but I acknowledge the precedent. Letting people add content to the game unsupervised isn't something that I can agree with. Even when it's legal and reasonably good, it creates a MESS. I've been trying to play Half-Life 2: Death Match recently, and it seems half the maps are someone's heavily-altered mod or stupid cube map because people can run servers of whatever they damn please.

And when we get into players submitting material for review, this just becomes unworkable. The developers can hardly find enough time to have a look at a player arc a day, let alone costume item submissions that I'm sure would take more than a passing glance to examine for compatibility.

Now, I generally don't go to the AT forums unless I have a specific reason (my builds really suck ), and most of what I've said in this forum has been about Snipes and how much I think they're too expensive for what they do. That's old news by now, and I still remember all the arguments. Believe me, I wouldn't be reviving an old thing like that if there wasn't at least SOMEWHAT of a reason for it.

So I was looking through the patch notes to Test today, and I spotted the Dominator changes. "Now or *never," says Castle, and I've always felt earlier is better than later, so it's all good. But then I run across a few interesting bits and pieces.

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Sniper Blast: Increased this power’s damage scale from 2.76 to 3.56, increased its recharge from 12 seconds to 20 seconds and increased its endurance cost from 14.4 to 18.51.

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Zapp: Increased this power’s damage scale from 2.76 to 3.56, increased its recharge from 12 seconds to 20 seconds and increased its endurance cost from 14.4 to 18.51.

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Blazing Bolt: Increased this power’s direct damage component damage scale from 2.12 to 3.56, increased its recharge from 12 seconds to 20 seconds and its endurance cost from 14.4 to 18.5.

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Psionic Lance: Increased this power’s damage scale from 2.76 to 3.56, increased its recharge from 12 to 20 seconds and increased its endurance cost from 14.4 to 18.51.

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Notice the pattern there? All of the various snipes of the various Assault sets that have them are getting boosted from their standard Blaster damage scale of 2.76 (approximately that of Cleave), to what seems to be the "upper cap" on reasonable attack damage of 3.56 scale (that of Knockout Blow and Total Focus, to name a few).

And
That's
GREAT!

For Dominators, that is. And it's not like their ranged damage mod is weak, either - they have 0.95 to Blasters' 1.125. Blaster Snipes, in the meantime, remain the same as they always have been, which... Kind of bugs me a little. I've always said Snipes needed a little something more, something to make the Blaster go "I want to use this!" rather than the struggle it is to actually remember we have them. I've discussed speeding them up, removing the interrupt duration, giving them critical hits or what have you, but probably THE biggest thing that I've wanted to see done to them was THIS. Exactly this. If a snipe will cost a lot, be slow and be interruptible, then it had better well do truly extreme damage. Well, 3.56 is the DEFINITION of Extreme damage, and I would very, very much like to see that happen to Blasters, as well. That right there would probably DOUBLE my enjoyment of the AT in one, single move.

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I really wanted to replace the Snipe ability and Aim from DP with atleast 2 toggles. Anymore than that and your limiting attack options and only 1 seems unnecessary. I'm growing on the idea of a Critical hit but im worried that it wouldn't mesh well with scourge from the Corruptor. Not many people use the Snipe so it wouldnt be missed THAT much.

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You're projecting, and that's not a safe mode of thinking. Snipes have their own problems (chiefly, too much general cost for too little return), but it is FAR from a safe bet that not many people use Snipes. Hell, I feel they're one of the BIGGEST ripoffs in the game, yet I still use them often just for the "Boom! Headshot!" I've gone a few rounds with other Blasters, insisting that Snipes needed to be improved and gotten the response that they're perfectly fine from many. Removing a Snipe from a Blaster set for thematic reasons is something I can deal with, but don't do so just because you fee it's useless and unpopular.

As for Aim, we've already gone over it. Having a powerful alpha strike capability on an AT with overall heavy damage and large AoEs is worth more than the "buff per second" metric it would provide, so removing THAT would need a VERY good reason in my eyes. Just making the set unique isn't good enough.

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I have to agree with Samual_Tow that the different damage types may not actually be as effective as they are on paper. When your in the thick of combat your not too worried about your damage type. How often do you hear from the Fire/Fire/Fire Blaster "oh, i cant fight CoT because those behemoths are resistant to fire damage.." ? It doesn't seem like a game-changing idea anymore.

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I have to disagree. Far, FAR too often I've found myself thinking "Damn! Robots! And I have a sword! This will take forever..." one second, and then "Hey, cool! Plants! And I have a sword!" the next. The difference between an enemy strongly resistant to your damage type and an enemy strongly vulnerable to your damage type can be COLOSSAL. Robots, in general, have somewhere around 50% damage resistance to Lethal damage, yet plants have around -20% to -30% resistance to Lethal damage. Going from one to the other can feel like your damage tripled. Freak Tanks, as well, are very resistant to Smashing and Lethal damage and, combined with their hit points pool and Dull Pain, can make them really hard to kill. They are, however, not in the slightest resistant to Negative Energy (though they aren't weak to it, either), leading to them feeling positively squishy to my Dark/Dark Scrapper. Back to robots, going from fighting them with a sword, to which they are resistant, to fighting them with a mace, to which they are weak (strong vs. Lethal, weak vs. Smashing) can turn them from the hard targets you leave for last to the soft targets you clobber first.

Damage type matters GREATLY, but not equally against all enemies and in all situations. Some enemies don't have vulnerabilities, some don't have many strengths and some are vulnerable to weird stuff like how the Clockwork are to Psi damage, which doesn't work as a bullet. This goes beyond powerset balance and into balancing a powerset against the world, which is both a right mess as it was done by concept, not an order of equal opportunities for all damage types, and can change significantly over just a single Issue.

In fact, that's what cuts certain powersets so deep. People fear Lethal damage because it's so heavily resisted, yet Energy Damage, which typically hits a little harder, is barely ever resisted at all, but still is by some of the meanest stuff like Rikti Chiefs and Malta Titans. Negative Energy is almost universally unresisted, except by the few things that resist it HARD, like stuff that's already dead - zombies, ghosts, dark magic users and so on. Cold isn't resisted often and seems like a few things are weak to it, but it's also a generally rare damage type even for enemies.

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I really like Toxic damage though, as there is ZERO powersets that utilize Toxic damage and would be very unique. But again damage is damage.

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It's a popular misconception that no-one really resists Toxic and Psi damage, but that really isn't true. It's borne of what our powersets do, and the fact that Psi and Toxic protection is relatively rare. However, there are quite a few enemies who resist these, and the ones that do resist them HARD. We're talking 50% damage resistance here. It's a cool idea, though.

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Mabye "Armor piercing rounds" which make a % of your damage unaffected by defense. So even if your attack is dodged, say (example, dont freak out..) 33% of the attack damage is still applied. I don't know how PvP people would like it but I know that Defense is king and purple candy is easily obtained.

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That sounds interesting in theory, but you have to remember that "Defence" isn't just armour. Melee, Ranged and AoE defence actually stand for dodging, and it wouldn't make any sense for, say, a Super Reflexes Crey Agent to be hit for 33% damage even when he completely dodged the bullet. Plus, coding that would be a PAIN. The power's to-hit roll comes first, and if it misses, NONE of its effects play. The only way to achieve that would be to make all powers in the set auto-hit but put a to-hit check on all of their effects. And even then, you still get the problem that only a part of the effects may land. Say, you could land the Fire damage, but not the Lethal damage, which really shouldn't work like that. It would also make accuracy unslottable for, as you can't slot for secondary effect accuracy, only power accuracy, and the powers are auto-hit. Remeber: "auto-hit" doesn't mean the power always hits, it means the power never rolls a to-hit check and is simply directly applied, meaning accuracy never even applies.

I COULD, however, see a return of the old Blaster unresistable damage from PvP. A toggle that made 30% of a Blaster's damage not affected by enemy resistance might be interesting, though that might actually be LESS effective than switching to a damage type the NPC doesn't have 50% resistance to.

Easy example: A 100 point Lethal attack against a robot normally does 50 points of damage, because the robot has 50% lethal resistance. At 30% unresistable damage, that attack would do 30 + 60*0.5 = 30 + 30 = 60. An increase, but not that great. Switching to all Fire damage, however, a damage type most robots aren't resistant to, would result in all 100 points of damage landing. Not only is that equivalent to ALL damage avoiding resistance, it's also equivalent to a 100% damage buff, only all the time. And that's before we count enhancements.

Like I said - a choosable damage type is a powerful tool, but far too dependent on the enemy you're fighting.

I think you guys are missing his point. He's suggesting that players make costume pieces themselves, then submit them for approval and inclusion into the game.

That said, I find this to be badly unrealistic. Unless the developers hire someone to review costume pieces full time, that's not going to happen, and that in itself is highly unlikely. And, as was already said, paying money to have your costume piece reviewed is just a giant can of worms.

What's more, as the many skins, mods and other custom stuff for game that allow it shows and, hell, as our very own Architect shows, 90% of everything players make is crap, and probably half of the authors that make this are convinced it's the greatest thing ever! Even the stuff that's actually good always needs work to both bring it to the standard of items and to work out all the niggling issues the player didn't think to check for.

I don't believe it will happen.

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Some temporary costumes change your size. In fact all of them do, if you're small enough. Animations seem to work fine with those, even strange animations like a freak tank using eagle's claw. It seems like the "animation size" can be altered on the fly, which means that it seems like it should be possible to alter it with a costume change.

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Altered, yes. Saved to the database, apparently not so much. The model changes we have are typically into a model with a FIXED height, which matters from what I've seen. I've said it before - dump a costume file and read it. If you altered the height, you will have a Scale stat that goes from -25 to +25 - that's your height, saved to your costume file. Yet loading this costume file even at character creation will NOT load that height. My guess, now as before, is that height is saved either in such a way that it cannot be changed, or in several places, one or more of which cannot be changed.

Of course, with the recent hints of extra customization coming with Going Rogue, who knows? We might get just that

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Blasters were playable before the Defiance changes, too. It sure as hell wasn't fun, though.

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Maybe your problem isn't Malta, maybe it's the AT. I found Blasters perfectly fine with the old Defiance I never used. Now they're easy mode.

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With lots of Inventions Sets, maybe, but I never got into that, nor do I plan to. Maximum performance has never been my goal, and as such "challenge" isn't something I desire.

That said, Blasters aren't my problem. I've gotten a couple of them to 50 without too much difficulty, and the only... Literally ONLY thing that has ever so much as caused me pause has been the Malta Group. Nemesis, Rikti, Crey, Carnival - they're all easy (just the way I like it). Even the Soldiers of Rularuu and the Rogue Vanguard are only marginally complicated once you learn how to handle them. I'm slightly concerned about my Fire/Fire Blaster lacking any holds, but I'm sure Pyre Mastery will help with that by the time it comes to that, plus... You know - damage. Malta simply DON'T have a right way to fight them but to throw your body against their fire and hope they go down before you, which really doesn't suit a Blaster.

And before the Defiance changes, something as simple as an Illusionist or a Mentalist would pretty much END a blaster then and there which, given that these can potentially spawn EVERY BLOODY SPAWN, meant you could never carry enough break-frees. With shooting out of holds now, I only ever resort to the break-frees I carry when I'm in immediate danger of dying if I don't act NOW. Any other time, I just weather the hold and shoot what's holding me "in my sleep."

Blasters aren't the problem. Things designed to be fought with personal protection or only on a team are, and even then most could be gotten around. Malta used to have a good way to fight them - stay in close range to avoid the nastiest of the attacks. That is now gone, and no proper way to fight them remains.

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Granted I'm now sitting on three holds with cryo freeze on top of the two in ice/ But that doesn't stop me from keeping a row of break frees for the stun grenades. And a constant supply of purple, red, and blue for the boss level mobs. That and if I do slip up on the holds things can get ugly fast.

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Truth be told, that's the biggest thing I'm worried about. Gunslingers and Operations Executives (or whatever the bandana-less dudes are called) are NASTY, but can be held and/or killed fast enough to be dangerous, yet doable. Zeus Titans, though... Those are just cheap. I'd take on a platoon of Sappers before I face one of those things, if I had a choice. Too many hit points, too much resistance to too much stuff and far too many attacks dealing too much damage. Essentially, it's only one step removed from an elite boss, only missions tend to spawn several of them. Gunslinger lieutenants and Tac Ops aren't as bad. They're still lieutenants and they go down the part.

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Hard as heck? Oh yes. Blasters need not apply? Hardly that. The game needs more mobs like them, not less. Though I certainly wouldn't mind a little extra exp for taking them on over the laughable high HP punching bags freakshow are. That really makes no sense to me.

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And that's the other side of the coin. Malta are hard and slow. A slog, in fact. I would be more understanding of it if my progress bar didn't slog right along with my pace. I can take on the Nemesis Army and eat Fake Nemesis for breakfast, earning experience and influence blindingly fast, yet stepping into a Malta mission is like stepping into an experience black hole. It comes in slow, I die a lot so it comes in even slower, and I'm struggling all the way through.

I wouldn't mind "a challenge" so much if it were worth facing. And it's not.

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But in the light of upcoming MMO competition which boast of their Power Customization features I think it would be very unwise for CoX not to at least try to overcome that limitation relatively soon.

[/ QUOTE ] Even if power customization doesn't happen here, it is thinking like this that will make Champions Online and DCUO two of the best things to happen to City Of Heroes players. Competition is a great thing for consumers.

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It doesn't matter if a player like me -actually- thinks this about those other games or not.
What would be good for us is if our Devs BELIEVE we think it's an important enticement to lead us astray.
Here's for doing my civic duty adding to the propaganda.
I know it sounds harsh but I'd rather our Devs be manipulated by us into thinking those games are going to be the best things since sliced bread and react to them as such even if they actually aren't...

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Here's the thing, though - not all of that is manipulation. I'll be the first to say I've been an unquestioning fan of this game for the past five years, yet even I've been looking at the competition. City of Heroes has always been a great game, be it by design or accident, and none of the newer ones have the right idea in my eyes. But it has also always been a game of bare bones basics. So, so many things have been said to be too much effort for what they're worth, or not things that would reach enough people, or not things that would make enough of an impact, and so forth. Luxury has never really been a part of this game on the grounds of cost vs. return concerns.

Well, this is exactly what a new game provides - it may not have the same breadth or depth of features, but what it will have is luxury. Menus that don't eat your line breaks, customization for powers even though not everyone cares for it, underwater zones, space zones, rayguns that shoot ice and so on and so forth. I know we can't have all of these things five years into the game, but I want to feel like the game is still getting luxuries. Quality of life, non-essential addons, new and cool little features, that sort of thing. To me, power customisation is one of these things. It's not essential to gameplay, but DANG if it isn't super cool anyway.

And at the end of the day, all of those little luxuries matter. We get used to them, forget about them and start feeling like they were always here. We don't appreciate what simple quality of life does for us. Who among you remembers how much better it is now that map markers spread out when you mouse over them? Who says a thanks every time he selects a rapier or a scimitar, or maybe even a shovel or a pipe wrench? Who remembers the time when your angels couldn't get their wings? These things matter. They're not all super-vital and they don't always offer a massive return on investment right then and there, but all of them make the game that much better, that much cooler and that much smoother.

Despite myself, I'm kind of glad for the competition, because it looks like it will bring in a lot of added quality.

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Keep your hopes down Boys and Girls...
If they do make Power Customization a reality, you'll be happier.
If they dont make Power Customization a reality, you wont be as disappointed...

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Ignoring it at this point makes no sense to me.
They've all but come out and told us it's going to happen, including the none too subtle hint in the GR trailer of that gal's fireball changing from red to blue.
Occam's Razor is on the side of customization.

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Logic would dictate that's probably true. Experience, on the other hand, dictates that it's too good to be true, and even if it IS, it'll come either with a fat catch or severe limitations. Old wounds remind me not to get too excited about things BEFORE I see them. At this point, I'm sold on Going Rogue. How excited I am about it will be determined AFTER I see it.

I'm certainly hoping we'll see the level of customization I've always wanted, but I'm keeping myself from being giddy.

Speaking of circumstantial evidence, though, it's becoming pretty evident that this is as close to a sink or swim time for City of Heroes as we've ever seen. With the first real competitors just around the corner and a game that's already showing its age, I dare say this expansion was all but inevitable. I still maintain that City of Heroes has more promise than anything I've heard about the competition, but I won't deny an ageing game is ageing. Still, it wouldn't take much to make it competitive in my eyes, and I strongly suspect the developers are looking blow our minds, as it were, which might about the biggest thing ever.

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To the OP, I remember that Sing Sang Song can make legs.
http://www.plexigrass.com/singsangsong.jpg

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The real irony is that, for all his many faults, Sing Sang Song's costume isn't all that bad

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html formatting would be wonderful

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I think this bug is actually due to a move to disable html formatting in certain places.

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That's all the bug is - HTML is disabled in the bio text field, so line breaks still exist, are recorded and saved... Then purged from the text field and it's saved without them. Why, I don't know, but it happened at some point in I14 Open Beta, as I had custom critters with line breaks in their descriptions.

This is starting to remind me of the bad old days of 2004 when your cursor would jump when you deleted or backspaced over a letter and you could never be sure if what you saved would be the same next time you loaded it. Between 2004 and some point in 2006, my namesake character has lost his line breaks over two dozen times - pretty much 9 out of 10 times I thought to look, and because I ended up hitting within 2 symbols of the text limit, kept losing a good 10 symbols or so off the back of his last sentence. I hadn't seen data loss or corruption for years, but I guess nothing is immune to being broken and then never fixed for ages.

Come on, guys! Custom critters I can see, but at least let us use HTML in OUR bios!

Mu respect for Mod8 just shot up several magnitudes. Thank you!

Not a fan of it costing, but DEFINITELY a fan of a throw money emote

Do we have a BABs' official emotes suggestion thread?

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One thing I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is the fact that there's already one power in the game that does add a new damage type to attacks: Enchantment of Serafina. Instant psi damage, perfect for taking on the honoree in his "Unstoppable" phase.

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I just checked the information for Enchantment of Seraphina both on City of Data and in-game, and it doesn't add a damage type. It simply increases the damage of psychic attacks without increasing the damage of any other type of attack (+% strength to psionic damage for 1 m 0s on target). So, unless both City of Data and the in-game information are wrong (I've never used it so I don't know), you're reading too much into the description and not enough into the game effects (which actually matter).

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Was about to ask about the same thing, myself. If this really is a buff to psi damage, then that's a standard mechanic, but ADDING a damage type to powers that don't have it (and how do we tell attacks from non-attacks?) isn't something that seems to be possible without the extra damage being coded into the power beforehand.

Actually, I thought I'd give a better idea of how these things work by listing a Dual Blades combo and how it works. Let's pick something simple, like Empower:

Nimble Slash does:
* Enable Dual Blade Debuff Mode 1 mode for 5.00s [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Enable Dual Blade Status Mode 1 mode for 5.00s [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade Debuff Mode 2 mode [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade Status Mode 2 mode [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade AoE Mode 1 mode [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade AoE Mode 2 mode [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade DoT Mode 1 mode [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade DoT Mode 2 mode [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]

In other words, it starts both Empower and Weaken combos, interrupts Sweep and Attack vitals combo on their first hit, and interrupts Empower, Weaken, Sweep and Attack Vitals combos on their second hit.

Ablating Strike does:
* Enable Dual Blade Debuff Mode 2 mode for 5.00s If Dual Blade Debuff Mode 1 [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Enable Dual Blade Status Mode 2 mode for 5.00s If Dual Blade Status Mode 1 [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade Debuff Mode 1 mode (after 0.25 second delay) [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade Status Mode 1 mode (after 0.25 second delay) [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade AoE Mode 1 mode [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade AoE Mode 2 mode [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Enable Dual Blade DoT Mode 1 mode for 5.00s If neither Dual Blade Status nor Debuff Mode 1 [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade DoT Mode 2 mode [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]

In plain words, it advances both Empower and Weaken combos to their second hit if they were already on their first hit and disables their first hit doubles, and if they weren't, starts Attack Vitals. At the same time it disables Sweep on either its first or second strike and disables Attack Vitals if it's already on its second strike. Complicated!

Finally, Blinding Feint does:
* ToHit +3.3% for 10s (after 0.2 second delay) If Dual Blade Status Mode 2
* DMG(All Types) +12.5% for 10s (after 0.2 second delay) If Dual Blade Status Mode 2 [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade Status Mode 1 mode [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade Status Mode 2 mode (after 0.25 second delay) [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade Debuff Mode 1 mode [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade Debuff Mode 2 mode [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade AoE Mode 1 mode [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade AoE Mode 2 mode [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade DoT Mode 1 mode [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
* Disable Dual Blade DoT Mode 2 mode [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]

That means it grants the buffs of Empower if the Empower combo was on its second hit, and if not these effects don't activation. In either case, it disables all combos at any stage of activation.

In more simple terms, Blinding Feint has a couple of additional effects that depend on the Scrapper being in Status Mode 2 (Empower combo, second hit), which in turn is a special effect in Ablating Strike that only activates if the Scrapper is in Status Mode 1 (Empower combo, first hit), which in turn is a special effect in Nimble Slash. All the other combos are interweaved through the same powers as a list of effects and prerequisites.

Each power (other than Confront) mentions all eight combo states - two for each combo, activating or deactivating them, with or without prerequisites so as to let the combos flow. That's what it takes to make powers display effects only in certain situations.

*note*
Ablating Strike is the most complicated power in the set in terms of combos, because it starts one and continues two, meaning it enables Sweep's first step every time and also enables Empower and Weaken's second steps if the first were active. It disables everything it doesn't enable. There are no simple powers (other than Confront) but this one is complicated to follow as well as write out.

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While color taste is almost a science, style taste wanes and waxes over the years and I've never seen that it is set in stone. So who's to say one person's taste is better than another - what you hate now may be very much in vogue 2 years from now in the real world... who knows? I know lots of people that used to "hate" thin glasses and praised big rims who now "hate" "clunky" rims and wear tiny glasses now. And don't even get me started on all the hair styles that have come and gone during my lifetime.
I'm sure what you are saying is probably considered good and proper among people who know such things... right now. But I know what I like and that's good enough for me and I am certainly not going to be bothered by what someone else does.

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I'm reasonably sure hairy cloven monster legs with backwards knees won't catch on within my life time, though I'm not confident in saying the same about exposed brains. You never know

Seriously, though, this isn't about fashion or clothes or anything as... Well, trivial. For someone who spends so long debating costume design on the 'net, I dress very casually and unassumingly in real life, sticking mostly to baggy pants, trainers and t-shirts. This is about general design and character creation, more something akin to drawing or painting than dressing yourself up. To goes beyond what's ON the body and even into the interaction of shapes and lines, of colours and tones. Yes, obviously not everyone will agree on what's good and what's not, but I'm sure many will agree that there is a marked difference between those costumes where people made an effort to tie everything together and those where people just slapped stuff together with no rhyme or reason. Again, it's a lot like hitting Random a few times - it comes up with cool designs, just... Never a combination of them that isn't positively hideous. Random is actually pretty good for sparking ideas, but it still needs an actual brain at the controls to put the ideas together in a coherent whole. A good costume is so much more than a mere sum of its parts, and it just bugs me when I see it almost succeed and still fail. I can deal with designs that never moved me at all, but when I see something that could have been, that bugs me.

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It is one thing to be the comical Arbiter Fabulous but quite another to have the same attitude in a serious "I hate" or "rage" sort of way. It just seems a little strange to feel that way about a costume to me.

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People have fun in different ways. For me, one of the most rewarding, most fun activities I'm aware of is making, finding or using a good character design. It's rewarding to such an extent that the few characters I really like I just can't take my eyes off. I'll log into a character and then spend pretty much a full day going "Oh, man, I love this costume!" I'll run by someone standing at Wentworth's or waiting at the station or sitting by the trainer and I'll do a double-take. "Wait, that looked interesting! What was it?" Then when I run back and have a good, long look, I'll be taking mental notes for when next I make a new costume. Hell, just yesterday I rescued the Iron Widow and spent a good, long while examining her costume, because her design is subtle, yet VERY GOOD.

I LOVE a good costume and, unless it's something specifically ugly like Colour-Blind Lad or I M Fancy, I don't notice bad costumes. Focusing on the good, as it were. But there are times when I see people start with really good ideas, such that have so much potential... And then totally butcher them, that actually makes me very literally angry. It's like someone took a knife to a painting you liked, or your favourite show's creator died mid-season and the rest of the episodes SUCKED. Or like someone made a horrible sequel to your favourite movie. I wouldn't have even bothered with this thread if I hadn't seen so many costumes that looked SO COOL in their waist-up mugshots, only to discover that they were completely ruined by a stupid choice of legs. In fact, I thought to make it when I caught myself thinking "This mugshot is pretty cool! I'll give it four muscle men. Oh, wait... Let's see how much they ruined it with the wrong legs. Yuck! Hideous! I'll give it two for the effort!" When you're expecting that every cool torso you see will be ruined by the legs that come with it, something is horribly wrong.

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Some of my alts costumes call for armor on the top with a short skirt & stiletto heels (the heels mainly because both the platform & flat heels cut off the leg and make it look shorter). I like the longer leg (I use the sliders all the way up on Legs, even for my short alts) - to me, it fits my own personal picture of how a superheroine looks based on the comics I enjoyed as a child (and still do enjoy), even though those comic superheroines rarely wore stilettos (with a few exceptions).

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As I said before, it's not the very concept of "armour + skirt" I hate, and if you can make it work, then that's very good. But I've seen far too many females that look like someone stole Judge Dredd's pants for the sole reason of them showing a bikini. I firmly believe that EVERYTHING can be made to work. I've managed to work a skirt into a trenchcoat + heavy boots combo and made it look reasonably good. The key here is actually coming up with a design that works together, be that through symmetry or contrast, NOT come up with a design that looks like you spliced two different people at the waist.

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I also frequently mix & match the patterns for the various "Tops with Skin" and "Bottoms" with skin. Some of the Bottoms are (again) ugly. Some of the Tops don't even have a corresponding Bottom. Sometimes, a "Top with Skin" costume looks good with a skirt or regular shorts - BUT that needs a belt to divide them because (as you implied) the pieces don't flow together well, You seem to be saying that should be a big "no-no", that dividing Top from Bottom violates some aesthetic rule. Not in my book, sorry.

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Actually, I only suggested removing the belt so that you could see how the top and bottom go together. Having a hard border really works against getting a good perspective on the whole model, so removing it only temporarily allows for a better look. I've never been against the use of belts or against the use of mismatching top and bottom. Hell, I have a guy who's using Leather Pants and the Flack Jacket tights top, despite the fact that those don't normally go together or flow very well. That was the only thing that looked enough like a uniform at the time. It's very possible, and in fact not actually all that hard, to make a top and bottom that don't flow together, but rather contrast or complement each other.

That isn't happening. I've seen so, so many perfectly good costumes ruined because it seemed like people designed from the head down to the waist, ran out of steam and though "Screw it, let's just get into the game!" and slapped something together so it's not just tights and smooth leather. A very crucial step that is so often missing, or at least appears to be, is the final tally where you're done designing, zoom out and have a good look at how all the pieces of the puzzle go together to form a complete picture. Very often, that picture will end up crooked and imprecise, because even though every piece looked perfect when you were working on it, it just didn't work when you put it together. Maybe you used a very heavily-detailed tech set like Enforcer for gloves and shoulders, but then went with a simple smooth set of boots like the wingless Valkyrie. On their won, both are great. Together, they're hard to make work. Or maybe you tried to make a costume that flowed, but it didn't flow well enough and you decided to go with something completely different. Say, pants instead of a Tights with Skin bottom to match your Tights with Skin top, or a full Tights bottom despite having a Belly Tee up top.

For me, my most common failure is overboard details. Each peace on its own is exquisite and intricate, but put them together and the whole thing becomes too busy, usually requiring me to flat-colour or replace a whole item set. That's not really on the topic of bottoms, but it's much in the same vein - the act of designing a perfectly good two thirds of a costume.

Typically, what other people wear doesn't even register in my head unless it's spectacularly unusual (non-human skin colours always do that), but for the most part I don't stick my nose in other people's business. However, when I spot a costume that looks like it'll be VERY cool, only to come closer and see it positively ruined because someone slapped a pair of legs that do NOT work with that look, well... That makes me angry. And not angry because someone made something I didn't like, but rather because someone made something I ACTUALLY LIKED... And then ruined it.

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That said, you mean the target has to be on the ground for the power to be effective? Thematically, I can agree, but... Why, they, does Tremor activate on targets in the air? I mean it's a power that causes the ground to shake, how am I doing that to a flying Goldbricker 10 feet up into clear airspace? and just how am I sending a crack in the ground up into the air?

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No, he's saying the power won't activate because the game's 'Target In The Air' check is covering targets that aren't truly in the air. Making the powers unusable.

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I understood what it means, I'm just lamenting why roots need to be restricted to ground only, whereas an effective EARTHQUAKE can be cast in the air. Wouldn't that make it an Airquake or something?