aaronz

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We're making some tweaks with Defiance in the upcoming patch.

It is not getting a major overhaul though. Just tweaking the defiance so it starts to kick in earlier. The overall buffs posted earlier are staying about the same (getting only slightly better), but you will be recieving a damage buff earlier in your health bar now.


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While I appreciate the fixes to the meter and adjustments to defiance, I still think the power overall is not useful to blasters and does nothing to fix the issues they have in the 40+ game.

Sorry, but thumbs down.


-AZ

I am not a fan of defiance. At best, it is not helpful, at worst, it is deadly. I got myself killed fighting a warhulk when he knocked me down into 10% health/defiance range, boosting my damage and killing us both in blazing explosion.

It was helpful to my level five blaster but useless to my 3 post-40 blasters.

My vote is to take it out entirely. I would rather have nothing.
-AZ

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Agreed.

We should try NEVER to change a power because of PvP alone (BTW, this is what I've always promised). The changes now aren't solely because of PvP - there's signifcant PvE issues, too.

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To quote a previous poster:
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However, could you elaborate on what the significant PvE issues are with Super Jump and Super Speed?

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I honestly just don't see them. I kinda feel like Super Speed is the only thing that made playing my blasters tolerable. I figured that the lack of vertical travel was enough of a penalty.

Some SS unfriendly zones for example:
Faultline (the faults)
Terra Volta (big walls and no road to the reactor door)
Eden (the woods in the center)
Creys Folly (near the rikti crash site)
Rikti Crash Site (near the entrance in particular)
Skyway City (the windy roadways and skyways)
Perez Park (the walls and woods)
Shadow Shard (falling is bad)

In general, Super Speeders have to take a circuitous route to get around most zones. Why penalize them more?

I really don't see how the superjump change will hurt anyone since most players just switch to combat jumping when in battle because of the extra defense and lower end cost. That said, I still don't see any reason to add the huge debuff to it.

However, super speed is the combat power that many blasters rely on. Please explain how it was too powerful in PvE? I guess I have heard a few flyers complain about the acc debuff on fly but most of them switch it off because it is to expensive to run anyways.

What is the goal for travel powers? If they are meant to be a safe way to get around only then put in a 100% ACC debuff and a 50% defense BUFF and add stealth (or reduced aggro) to all of them. Please EXPLAIN these "signifcant PvE issues" to us. If the powers were not equal then how about a buff to the fly and teleport. I suspect that 99% of players would prefer that. I know teleporters will.

-AZ

I agree with the op

-AZ

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I went away from the computer to check on some CoV stuff and *wham* I received 5 or so PM's asking "what is the Blaster's role?"

Answer - Ranged damage. Now, the issue is more specifically - what does a Blaster do that a Scrapper can't already do? Or, even worse, is a Scrapper inherently "stronger" than a Blaster. We want each Archetype to have a well defined role, and part of our Scrapper testing is aimed directly at this.


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Statesman, thanks for the response. That said, I think you are wrong here. A blaster is not just ranged damage. Scrappers and defenders do that almost as well (or better sometimes). Also, if blasters are about ranged damage then why so many short ranged and pbaoe attacks in the primary sets? Why so many melee attacks in the secondary sets?

It seems like you are trying to redefine blasters and it is too late in the game for that. Blasters are about damage and lots of it. They are not about defenses or range or whatever. Blasters are about damage, plain and simple.

Exhibit A: Blaster AT description (official)
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The Blaster is an offensive juggernaut. Whether up close or afar, he can deal out tremendous amounts of damage. In comparison to the other Archetypes, the Blaster is by far the most damaging to the enemy. But the Blaster is quite fragile; this Archetype has relatively few hit points. Blaster heroes must be on their guard before getting into combat; while their immense power can overcome most foes, alone they are quite vulnerable. The Blaster can turn the tide of a conflict, but they need their friends to help them succeed.

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I see nothing here about the blaster primarily being a ranged attacker. It says "up close or afar". It also says "In comparison to the other Archetypes, the Blaster is by far the most damaging to the enemy". This is not really true. We are slightly more damaging than most but there are definitly powerset combinations in other ATs that exceed the damage output of a blaster (often with more safety).

Exhibit B: Short range primary attacks (<= 40 feet)
Buckshot, Flamethrower, Ignite
Fire Breath, Blaze, Inferno
Energy Torrent, Power Burst, Nova
Short Circuit
Frost Breath

Exhibit C: Short range secondary attacks (<= 40 feet)
Caltrops, Taser
Power Thrust, Energy Punch, Bone Smasher, Stun, Total Focus
Charged Brawl, Lightning Field, Havok Punch, Lightning Clap, Thunder Strike, Shocking Grasp
Fire Sword, Combustion, Fire Sword Circle, Blazing Aura, Consume, Burn, Hot Feet
Frozen Fists, Ice Sword, Freezing Touch, Frozen Aura


Honestly, I just don't understand your answer (Answer - Ranged damage). I really do not see this as the primary function of my blasters and I never have. When I am in the team I feel that my goal is to do damage, plain and simple. When I play another AT and I want damage I invite a blaster or a scrapper. I am getting the blaster for raw damage, not for ranged damage.

I think the 500% cap for scrappers is a load of junk. They are not in more danger than a character with no (or very little) defenses, range or no range.

Please consider keeping or making the role of blasters "offensive juggernaut".

Thank you

-AZ

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Secondly, I have no intention of removing melee attacks - it's just a "perception" by some Blasters that some of the Secondary Sets aren't as useful as Devices or Energy Manipulation.

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Yeah, I've always had this "perception" that getting into melee with anything on my Electric/Ice Blaster was essentially begging to die. I get enough Ranged attacks in my Primary that I can cycle damage forever. Why would I want to run in and try to slap someone, giving him the chance to gut me?

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Sorry man but you are wrong on this. I play all my blasters in melee range and am pushing 200 levels with the 5 of them combined. Statesman is right. I like playing my blaster in melee range and there are a lot of other players that do also.

I'm not saying that melee blasting is better than ranged blasting. It is just what some of us find fun.

-AZ

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Still confused about one point: if (for example) you've got a three person team, each person on the team is 400' away from each other person, and person X defeats a bad guy -- does person X get "solo XP" or XP for being on a 3 person team?



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He'd get XP with the 3 person team multiplier...BUT that XP would still be divided appropriately between each teammate. The others, however, wouldn't receive their shares.

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Yuck. This is sucky. Why should XP just go away because my dumb teamates are slow? If they are not getting the XP then it should go to me. Use the same code that gives XP based on being in a different zone (i.e. players who are not in the same zone get no XP and do not count toward the multiplier). This part still needs work in my opinion.

I love the way this is handled in a mission. That would have really been bad if distance had hurt players in missions. Bravo.

Here's hoping this gets another tweaking.

-AZ

What the... I don't see any pigs flying and hell is still burning hot! What's going on around here!


No, I kidd. First dev post that I can remember that was not about nerfing blasters. Fantastic.

-AZ

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Instead of cameras just allow people to view the action from the point of view of any of the players in the match and to change their selection as the match proceeds.

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This is a great idea. The current observer cams are too slow and it is too hard to find the actual battle in the medium or larger maps.

-AZ

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I feel as though I will now miss something that the game offered. I never PLed on Wolves and I feel that I missed out on some of the content that was in the game.


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The funny thing is that this is actually how I felt when Kora got nerfed. I really wanted to level my emp def on kora once I got to 40. I have leveled my various characters in different ways, and I was hoping to have one character who was a fruit farmer.

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Unless you were a herding tank or a player with phase shift, all you missed out on was hours of boredom. Do you really think the devs are trying to reduce fun? Quite the opposite.

Trust me, herding is boring for everyone except the tank. Kora was boring for everyone except the PSers.

-AZ

I wanted to address your question about team compostion seperately. It is true that my suggestions leave out scrappers in general, but I don't really see this as a big problem. Scrappers tend to be great at soloing and pretty good in most teams. The fact that they are not crucial to a single trial in the game (and only to my method of completing it) is not exactly saying they are garbage.

Almost any scrapper will be one shotted by the hydra head (except maybe */dark if they slot their armor and are high enough level or a high level regen scrapper). In my experience, */dark scrappers tend to get killed by the hydra head which is why I did not suggest it. Even */regen scrappers go down sometimes during the initial hydra head attack but with dull pain (or dual dull pain) I rarely see that happen.

This is just my experience. Keep in mind that I have a scrapper (and a fairly high level one). I think my scrapper is great but he is not ideal for a small hydra team. On a side note, a scrapper IS ideal as the 5th player on a team like this because he is perfect to stand there blasting away with the particle cannon with little to fear from tentacles or the rikti ambush. Having a 5th player to blast away will drop the hydra a full minute faster in my experience.

-AZ

Peeps: No need to take out the shield or bother with the generators, holding the head takes the shield down

BlackSly: Assuming you are not messing with the generators, the indicator is that the blue shield will vanish. There is not really any other visual indicator because the effects are covered by the mass of the hydra itself (at least in my experience)

TopDoc: Your points are valid, however, gathering the weapons on a pervious run is not really in the spirit of the guide. The idea is to beat it in a single run in under 10 mins.
You could easily farm the mission without ever beating it but the point of the guide was to cover the fastest way to beat the hydra head in a single pass.

CosmicAvatar: I understand where you are coming from but again, this guide is simply to explain the fastest way to beat the mission in a single pass. If a team wants to beat the mission the normal way (taking down the generators) that is fine also but much more difficult.

Have fun, kill lots of hydras!

-AZ

How to beat the Sewer Trial in 10 mins or less
This is a guide for how to beat the Sewer Trial in 10 mins or less. After taking down the Hydra twice yesterday and having to explain the entire procedure to a group of level 50s the first time and smaller team of 40-42s the second time I decided to put this together. I hope this helps people who are having trouble beating this trial. Before we go on, I want to assure you that it is possible, with as few as 4 players, to take 10 minutes or less to go from from entering the door to Mission Complete. I have done it twice already.

Since I ran out of room in the title, here is the spoiler warning:
SPOILERS BELOW!!!! SPOILERS BELOW!!!! SPOILERS BELOW!!!! SPOILERS BELOW!!!!
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Ok, now that we got that out of the way, go check out the excellent sewer trial guide by StabbinPayne:
The 30 Minute Sewer Trial Guide
It is less of a walkthrough and more provides more detail about the trial in general.

1) Team Composition
This is fairly crucial. You want everyone in the 40+ range if possible. The trial can be completed with as few as 3 people but I recommend 4-5.

You must have at least 1 controller and 2 are better. If you do not have at least 1 controller and then 1 other player of any AT with a ranged hold you can forget this strategy entirely.

I will lay out an ideal 4 player team:
A) Primary Controller:
Build: Ideally we want Gravity/Radiation as the primary holder. Why? Because Grav/Rad is the best holder in the game. Both Grav holds are ranged and they also have pets which control and knock enemies away from you while you are attacking the main hydra head. Radiation allows for debuffs on the Kraken and EMP pulse to lock down all the tentacles in 1 shot. Next best thing is to have Gravity/*. In a pinch, any controller with repulsion field or repel will work.
Role: The primary controller's job is to hold the hydra head and lock down tentacles and the rikti ambush that happens when the head reaches 30% life. By having gravity pets or repulsion fields all ambushing rikti will be bounced away allowing you to finish off the head and then clean up the rikti afterwards.

B) Primary Tank:
Build: Most any tank will do here but Stone Tanks are ideal because of their ability to resist psychic damage. You need someone to take the initial hit from the Hydra Head before the controller(s) lock it down and you need someone to occupy the kraken while you kill it. If you cannot get a tank at all then a level 42+ regen scrapper can substitute fairly well. In a pinch, an illusion controller can take the place of your tank (even though the kraken pull is hairy). How can Illusion replace a tank? The Phantom Army can tank the Hydra head while the controllers lock it down. This in fact works very well in combination with a non-stone tank.
Role: The primary tank's job is to pull the one kraken that must be killed to clear a path to the hydra head and also to hold aggro on the hydra head and also hold aggro when the rikti ambush comes. This will be easier if the tank has taunt but I don't think it is required.

C) Primary Damage:
Build: Ideally we want a blaster, either Fire/Energy or Energy/Energy, here. Strong single target attacks combined with a good Nuke are fairly critical here. You will need the single target damage to take out the Kraken in under 2 mins and kill the tentacles and rikti bosses in the ambush. The nuke will be used to clear tentacles and minions/LTs in the rikti ambush. Any blaster with strong single target attacks and a nuke is ok here. Without the nuke you will have trouble clearing the tentacles and rikti ambush quickly. In a pinch you can use a scrapper here but I doubt you will be able to clear the mission in under 10 minutes.
Role: Kill everything. In specific, take out the Kraken in under 2 mins and kill the tentacles and rikti in the ambush. Maintain continuous particle cannon fire on the hydra head.

D) Auxiliary Buffer/Healer:
Build: The idea build here is any defender or controller with the ability to heal and buff endurance. This means empathy most likely but kinetics can work here as well. Force field is ok but without end buffs the fighting will slow down and finishing in under 10 mins will be very difficult. Having grant invis or invis is critical here to avoid aggroing the other 3 kraken while fighting the tentacles and hydra head. At least one member of the team must have recall friend and typically this is the one.
Role: Keep the team in good health and keep end maximized. Make everyone invisible while fighting and get the team to the bottom (or enable the teleporter to reach the bottom by granting invis to him). Maintain particle cannon fire on the hydra head.


2) Beating the Mission
Beating the mission is a multi-part process. You have to be quick and cannot waste time. I will lay out the steps and then explain what to do at each point below them.

A) Obtain particle guns; skip to the bottom of the pit - 1.5 mins
B) Kill 1 Kraken to clear path to Hydra Head - 2 mins
C) Hold hydra head; nuke tentacles - 30 secs
D) Attack hydra head with particle cannons; defeat head - 4-5 mins
E) Clear tentacles; complete mission - 1 mins


Now, in more detail.

A) Obtain particle guns; skip to the bottom of the pit - 1.5 mins
Enter the mission door, time is ticking so everyone should enter at the same time. The key player here is the one with recall friend and TP. As soon as you are inside the key player needs to be made invisible. The glowy boxes in the shaft leading down to the bottom contain particle cannons or thermite cannons (see the guide I linked above for more detail). Key player grabs a particle cannon and then TPs the next player (who is also invised) to the next particle cannon. Key player uses TP to jump from one glowy box to the next pulling people so they can get particle cannons. Once each player has particle cannon they head to the bottom. Stay to the outside of the shaft to avoid aggroing the Hydra Head early. Once everyone is on the bottom, assemble near one of the kraken. The best one is the kraken that is furthest from a generator (he also is about the closest to the hydra head).

B) Kill 1 Kraken to clear path to Hydra Head - 2 mins
Key player here is the primary tank. Primary tank aggros the kraken as soon as he reaches the gathering spot. Kraken does a ranged AOE so stand at least 20 feet from your teammates. Pull the kraken so you do not aggro tentacles while fighting him. Controllers should hold the kraken once he is in position. A kraken can be chain held be a single controller stacking holds. The key player shifts from primary tank to primary damage. Keep the kraken held, buff the damage dealer and take down the kraken as fast as possible. I have seen Krakens drop in as little as 60 seconds with rad debuffs on them. Not having a blaster here to do heavy single target damage will hurt you at this step.

C) Hold hydra head; nuke tentacles - 30 secs
All players are key for this part. Doing this right is critical to completing the mission quickly and timing is very important. First, make everyone in the team as invisible as possible (even the tank). This is crucial because we do not want to aggro the other krakens. Send in the Phantom Army or tank to take the first hit from the hydra head and distract the tentacles. Keep in mind that the hydra head does 1000+ pyschic damage so non-tanks should avoid getting hit at all. As the tank/PA takes the first hit from the hydra, the primary controller (and anyone else with a hold) should attempt to hold the hydra head. Once the head is held, the blue shield will drop. Once the shield is down the hydra head is vulnerable and we are ready to take it down. The primary damage dealer should use a nuke or other AOE to clear as many nearby tentacles as possible.

D) Attack hydra head with particle cannons; defeat head - 4-5 mins
At this point, controllers will want to summon any pets they have and everyone except for the primary controller should use their particle cannons on the hydra head. Each player should do something between each particle cannon shot. Healers should toss an AOE heal, anyone with a hold should hold the hydra head, buffers should do quick buffs, pets should be summoned, etc... (this is crucial to keep up the attack safely). Everyone should stay close together to ensure buffing is easy and avoid pulling extra aggro. Staying together is critical for the rikti ambush. On a side note, the particle cannon damage cannot be buffed and it never misses so do not bother attempting to increase it.
As the health of the hydra head approaches 30%ish the damage dealer should be buffed for end and prepare to nuke. When the health hits 25-30% a big rikti ambush will TP on top of the group. The primary controller should attempt to AOE hold this group as much as possible while the damage dealer nukes it. The tank should aggro the bosses that are left while the damage dealer finishes them off. Go back to using the particle cannon on the hydra head as soon as you can. Continue firing until the hydra head dies.
Occasionally you will see multiple rikti ambushes. Handle them all the same way.

E) Clear tentacles; complete mission - 1 mins
Once the head is down you have to clear all the main tentacles. Do not bother killing the spawned minion tentacles. The easy way to tell is by level. There are 3 levels of tentacles and you must kill the 2 highest levels. At 42 the ones you must kill will be yellow and white. The ones you can skip will be blue. Be careful not to aggro the kraken while killing the tentacles. Once you kill the last one the mission completed message will come up and you can celebrate.

Hope you have fun with this mission and are able to complete it in under 10 minutes. It is a rush and one of the most fun times I have had in the game.

-AZ

I like it! I like it a lot.
-AZ

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They do. But not as their "name" characters. They like making random characters and teaming to play with things. So next time you're on a team with a 35+ character who's playing a bit like a PL'd newb but asking questions a newb wouldn't even think of asking, you *might* be playing with a dev.

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My gosh, I must play with devs constantly!

-AZ

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Then there's the Damage Per Second arguement. The simple fact is elec, over the extreme short term (~10 seconds), single target, counting from first attack, Elec outdamages any other primary line by a significant fraction, because of Voltaic Sentiel's (minor) concurrent damage.

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What? Voltaic Sentinel would be able to contribute 2 shots within a 10 second time span. Here are the numbers assuming no misses:
Cast VS: 3 sec activation (3)
VS attacks (2 sec Activation) (5)
VS recharges (3 seconds) (8)
VS attacks (2 sec activation) (10)

There is 10 secs. VS contributed 2.22 Brawl Index damage per shot for a total of 4.44. Choosing electrics attacks in the most efficient order possible you would have:
Charged Bolts (2 sec activation) (5)
Ball Lightning (1 sec activation) (6)
Lightning Bolt (2 sec activation) (8)
Charged Bolts (2 sec activation) (10)

That would add 2.78 + 2.83 + 4.56 + 2.78 = 12.95. The total damage factor over 10 secs is now 12.95 + 4.44 = 17.39. You may wonder why I did not include zapp. As soon as you cast VS you will aggro the enemies on yourself making a sniper shot impossible without interruption in most cases.

Let's compare with Ice Primary as an example:
Ice Blast (1 sec activation) (1)
Ice Bolt (1 sec activation): (2)
Frost Breath (3 sec activation) (5)
Ice Bolt (1 sec activation) (6)
Bitter Ice Blast (1 sec activation) (7)
[2 secs of free time while recharging]
Ice Blast (1 sec activation) (10)

The nice thing about this is that Ice Bolt can be fired again at 10 but would not activate until 11 so it is outside the damage for this 10 seconds. Total damage = 4.56 + 2.78 + 3.89 + 2.78 + 6.34 + 4.56 = 24.91 (an extra 70% over 17.39)

You don't even want to see the numbers for Fire. So how does electric do more damage in 10 seconds than other blasters? Electric cannot hang with other blasters in DPS, even with the extra damage/aggro draw of voltaic sentinel. I also dare you to throw your voltaic sentinel in the middle of a groups of hard enemies (like say in the respec TF) and see how much aggro it draws on you as it randomly picks targets.


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However, over the slightly longer term electric looses horribly beacuse it only has 3 primary attacks, and even with permahasten there's a noticable downtime when waiting for them to cycle, unlike the other primary lines which have 4 (ice, for example, has 3 single targets and an AoE, fire 2 AoEs and 2 single targets).

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I do agree that Voltaic Sentinel is garbage and all it is good for is drawing extra aggro onto a blaster. However, Fire has 3 single target attacks, 2 AOEs and a sinper attack. You are right that Ice only has 3 single targets and no snipe but it more than makes up for that with it's holds and extremely fast activation times. Energy gets 3 single target hits and a snipe and AR gets 3 AOEs, 2 single target, and a sniper attack. AR is probably the second weakest single target blaster after electric but it's AOE attacks more than make up for that.

Bottomline here is that Electric is getting the screw job in all areas. Do NOT be deceived by power descriptions or primary power set descriptions. Believe the numbers only.

-AZ

I have to agree with the OP. Just looking at the Electric Primary the end drain is really pretty weak. Sure, Short Circuit can drain a lot of end but it requires melee to use. Try missing a freakshow tank with it and see how long you last at melee range against him (and I just mean red or orange like you might find in a solo mission). And you better not miss against a LT or boss that can chain holds (lots of those 20+) or you are going down for the count.

As for the arguments about increasing our powers making the enemies too strong:
I don't see that going both ways at all. There are level 15 bosses in SC casting fire imps (level 32 controller power) and then throwing fire blaster attacks. There are crey bosses with defender, tank, and blaster abilities. And then we have sappers which have a end drain that puts any electric blaster to shame. Obviously there is a seperation between the powers we have and the powers enemies have, so make electric blasters primary better.

I tried end draining Dr. V, Babbage, and the Clockwork King back in the day before I "learned my lesson" that Short Circuit was ineffective against AVs and Monsters. I don't know how that one guy drained 6 AVs but he must be amazing. I could barely see the end bar move myself.

I have played every type of blaster and I can see a noticeable weakness in my electric blaster. Granted he is only level 26 (please no flames) but he just isn't as effective as my other blasters. Maybe it is my play style or maybe I just suck as a blaster but that is how I see it.

-AZ

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I've called for a Blaster nerf somewhere? My Defender plays just fine and I'm quite comfortable with its desirability in groups, but thank you for the failed attempt at psychoanalysis.


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You heard me and I think you got the point. If not, oh well.

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Why should I have AT envy when I play members of every AT?

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I don't know. You are the psychoanalysis expert. You tell me. Why else are you posting and pissing everyone off?

-AZ

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At level 32 though, it's a different story. The thing that many are forgetting is how long it takes. My 31 BS/Regen can solo level 34 Rikti, in medium groups (5-7), but I will be using some inspirations and it will take me 5 minutes. The problem with Blasters is that they can't survive 5 minutes head to head.

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Must be nice. I would be killed in their initial volley if I tried this. Since XP increases by roughly 50% with each level the enemy is above you that would yield 3 times the XP I could get hunting white Rikti and 4 times blues (since they are worht about half what a white is). I mention those since anything stronger kills me.

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But if you take your time, hit and run, throw an attack and bail, sneak back around to throw another, you know, tactics, then how do you fair?

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Assuming you mean 5-7 reds (1 LT, no boss) as you mentioned above:
31 Fire blaster - dead
29 AR blaster - dead

Assuming 5-7 whites (1 LT, no boss):
31 Fire - dead 1 out of 20 fights
29 AR - dead 1 out of 10 fights

Been spending much time in Brickstown and Independence Port since I can't solo in hazard zones anymore) testing my new (much lower) limits. I have not tried to fight a boss since the first day of the update when I died twice against different yellow bosses (that is 1 level below). Chain holds both times.

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This is actually a serious question, not a troll or flame. I hear many blasters say they will suck with the changes and many say they won't. My suspicion is that the ones who don't think the changes will be that devistating are the ones who are already using tactics, hit and run, etc... while the ones who are really, really upset are not.

So, can anyone who is an AoE blaster, who is still soloing groups of 7-10 0/+1/+2 in under 5 minutes let us know how they are managing, while some others claim that can't even fight groups of blues?

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I can still solo a group of white minions (assuming they have no stuns/holds) up to 10 with no problem. +1 is more difficult but I just hit 2-3 defense before or 2-3 heals during (i.e. 1 shot, heal, 2nd shot, heal, 3rd shot, heal, run) and I am usually ok. Add in a LT and it is totally different. I cannot even hunt blues in DA anymore now because of the chain stuns that shamans do. Bosses are now virtually impossible unless I have pink insps.

I think the difference has more to do with the composition of the enemy group that anything else. It is really hard to find groups of only minions (I see maybe 2-3 per hour in BT and FF). That does not make for very quick leveling.

-AZ

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Despite the repeated assertion, I can't recall ever seeing a Blaster kicked from a group for not dealing sufficient damage. For being reckless, yes. For being a jerk, yes. But for not using his AE as soon as possible? Never. For picking when it is best to take a shot? Nope.

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Saw it twice and did it thrice (that is 3 times). I guess we all have different experiences and just because you have not seen it does not mean it hasn't happened. If a blaster is not contributing to the team by throwing their strongest attacks then I give them a warning first and the boot next. Same with any other ATs (controllers who don't hold, tanks who don't provoke/taunt/aggro, defenders who don't buff/debuff, scrappers who don't jump into the fight). Might seem harsh but it is not fair to the rest of the team to let someone leech XP.

If you are a fire blaster and use only your single target attacks and get kicked from the team it was probably me kicking you. Play your AT to it's fullest or find a different team. I have quit plenty of teams because they would not get rid of leeches as well. Go join one of them.

-AZ

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what did I do to draw the aggro? Attack. which is what I'm supposed to do. and do you seriously expect me to wait around for a radiation defender every damn time I want to play? I think you need to take a look at player demographics. On protector I've run into maybe 2 oir 3 Rad defenders. My Super team is loaded with defenders.... not a single one of them rad defenders.

Besides like I said. semantics. I've been one shotted by all of those things and yes on teams.... where was the defender?

Busy helping other players, missing with the targeted heal effect that steals from mobs, stunned like me, mezzed like me, dead before me, out of endurance... and in some cases just plain incompetent.

You're living in a fantasy world.

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I agree 100%. The real world (described above) is where the rest of us live. I think the issue here is that you don't feel needed in a group. Why don't you address the issue in the defender forum by asking for bonuses to your powers instead of messing with blasters and being a nerf-[censored]?

I would fully support most bonuses for defenders. Quit with the AT envy already. You sound like a bunch of whiny 5 year olds who need a nap.

-AZ

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How about keeping the Area the same, but have a damage scaling depending on the number of enemies affected. For each AoE power, set an arbitrary threshold for 100% damage. When you hit a group bigger than the threshold, damage (or even accuracy) per mob is decreased. This would reflect densely packed mobs inadvertently shielding each other from taking full damage through sheer proximity.

Range Increase enhancements could be used to adjust the threshold and damage scaling for more customization options.

This would lessen farming of huge mobs. It'll make the difference between fighting 5, 10, 20+ enemies at once much greater. It could also mean Player Characters taking less AoE damage when in larger groups (imagine huge Raid level events).

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I have a great idea. How about when tanks get attacked they get their full resistance against the first enemy but each enemy after that does more and more damage? And when controllers hold a group they hold 1 enemy for the full hold but the time is reduced for each enemy after that? Also, when a defender buffs/debuffs the effectiveness is reduced for each additional target. That would be great!

Oh wait... no... those suggestions are ridiculous. So is yours. Put down the nerf bat and quit your complaining.

-AZ

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That means build up is only adding 25-30% more damage and Aim is only 15-20% extra.

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Know thy numbers.

Unless the powers have recently been changed since I last heard:
Aim: 50% damage 100% accuracy
Build-Up: 100% damage 50% accuracy

That would roughly be 21-36% and 43-72% effective damage boosts to a 6-slotted all damage SO attack depending on the levels of the SOs relative to your character.

So yes, Build-up and Aim still help considerably with damage. Even on a 6 damage SO+3 attack combining them both is adding over 64% damage to the attack. (150/233)

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Wow. I am not sure where to start with a response here but I do know my (thy?) numbers. I was giving rough numbers and assuming green SOs but since you posted actually wrong numbers I have to respond so others will not be confused.

Aim: 62.5% damage boost
Build Up: 100% damage boost
The accuracy increase on both powers is unknown but assumed to be 50% for BU and 100% for AIM.

6 green SOs = 328% damage

Assume 100 damage for a power.
With 6 green SOs you get 328 damage.
Add Build Up only and you get 100 more damage.
Add Aim only and you get 62.5 more damage.

62.5 is only 19% of 328.
100 is roughly 30% of 328.

Since no self respecting player over 30 would use anything less than greens I figured these were reasonable numbers. My estimates were off the top of my head and I think they were pretty good considering that.

Anyways, you were looking at the percentage relative to the increase and I was looking at the percentage relative to the actual damage. That may be where some of the confusion lies.

-AZ

Is this thread a joke? I have a level 31 fire blaster and I cannot kill groups anywhere without getting stunned or held (and then killed). I assume this was posted before Issue 2?

If you nerf the AOE attacks so AIM and BUILD UP do not work with them, you will only make it so they miss a lot. Think about it. Most people put 5-6 damage SOs in their AOE. That means build up is only adding 25-30% more damage and Aim is only 15-20% extra. The key is the accuracy bonus.

Besides, I was in a 6 player respec team (2 blasters, 2 defenders, 1 controller, 1 tank) last night and without aim and build up our whole team would have been screwed (i.e. I would not be able to hit the +3 and +4 bosses). What are you trying to accomplish with your nerf calls anyways?

Go to Terra Volta and watch invul/regen scrappers take on groups of 10 +1 or +2 LT's ALONE and win with barely any damage. Then try that with your AOE blaster against the same size group but -1 or even level. I guarantee you will see the light after your trip to the hospital.

Bottomline, everyone has their strengths. Blasters are no longer the solo kings they were before the update. If you are calling for a nerf then go harass the scrappers in their forum and leave us alone.

-AZ

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Zones are different than missions because they are broken down into 3 categories: city, hazard &amp; trial. City zones spawn mobs designed for 1 to 3 heroes, hazard zones spawn things for 3 to 5 heroes, and trail zones spawns mobs designed for 5 to 8 heroes.

So, in street sweeping, we've noticed that large groups (say 5 or more) going around city zones - and then complaining that group XP isn't good. When, quite frankly, these groups are street sweeping in areas that don't have anything to challenge a group that size. Risk = reward. And because there's less risk, they don't get as much XP. But if the same group were to go into a Hazard Zone, they'd find larger spawns, and reap the benefit of the group XP bonus.

Note - missions scale to the team size. There is sometimes a delay in when the mob sizes scale up to a new size team....


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I read through this thread hoping to see a comment from Statesman about the problem of security restrictions but I didn't see it. If I missed the comment, I apologize. That said, the reason that the group I play with hunts in city zones almost exclusively is because of the spread in levels between our characters.

Half of us joined 2.5 months ago and we got the rest to join about 1 month or so afterwards. This means that 3 of our group are in the upper 20's and the rest of the group is in the teens or very low 20's.

The problem we run into is that we cannot get into a zone that is appropriate for our team size (5-8) with everyone in the team. I had hoped that sidekicking would allow us to bring our friends into Terra Volta or Dark Astoria but it does not and I have seen the dev posts that say this will not change. This policy effectively eliminates hazard zones as an option for our team.

Trial zones are the same since they are security level restricted as well so we cannot use those either. Basically, that leaves city street fighting or missions as the only option. Unfortunately, missions are a complete joke since our upper 20 level characters can do them without any help from the other team members (even scaled up). We still do missions for variety but basically we are stuck hunting in city zones.

At any rate, this is why we hunt in large groups in city zones (probably why others do as well). Just wanted to let you know that is is not by choice. We are being forced to do it. I would ask you to change the way hazard zones and trial zones work but I have seen the other posts about it. That being the case, I would like to hear any suggestions you have for those of us who play in a diversely leveled group.

Here are our main chars and levels for an example. We usually play in a team of 4-7 people. Currently we hunt in Independence Port or Talos Island and SK the lower level players. Please tell me where I should be playing:
Capt. AZ - level 29 blaster
Tigressa - level 27 controller
Cigbur - level 20 tanker
Iradion - level 25 defender
DeathX - level 21 scrapper
Hot Flash II - level 15 blaster
I in Team - level 17 blaster

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Ah - and as for the argument that mission XP "sucks." Yes, you do reap less XP/minute if you simply travel from your contact immediately to your mission door (which tends to be player behavior). However, if you fight some spawns on the way - and finish the mission with the new XP rewards - I think you'll find that missions are much, much more competitive XP wise.

Oh - and one other thing. The vast, vast majority of players at any given time are on missions. XP or not - it's the most popular part of the game.

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Just a comment on the missions and hunting along the way. About half of the missions I am getting at level 28-29 are in Kings Row, Steel Canyon, or Skyway City. Right now, 2 of the 3 missions I have are in Kings Row. Should I be hunting the greys along the way to that mission? How would that help? Why don't the mission doors appear in zones that are appropriate for my level? Maybe if they did, players would hunt more along the way to the mission.

If you happen to see this and respond to it then thanks for your time. I appreciate the work you guys are doing on the game. It is a ton of fun. I just wanted to express some of the frustrations I (and the rest of my SG) have been dealing with recently.

-AZ