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Another_Fan

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  1. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood View Post
    .

    Secondly as far as I'm concerned Tactics (or an equivalent power such as Targeting Drone or Farsight) has always been essential. Missing an attack really, really sucks and the newer content has featured more and more enemies with either to hit debuffs, defense buffs or simply higher level than us so stacking a bit more To Hit on my characters has always been high priority. The majority of them have two (or even three) leadership toggles and unless I have a To Hit buff already one of the two will be Tactics. Now I'll admit most of them don't have 22% To Hit buff because I generally aimed for 15% but that's just a slotting change.
    Tactics is hardly needed to be certain of hitting until you start talking about better than +4 enemies. Its very easy to build so you are hitting 95% of the time against +4s worst case you take a kismet.
  2. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Edana View Post
    Why not add Radiation to the list? That's the other case where Blasters get less out of the snipe changes due to Corruptors having a different version of the set that has intrinsically worse DPAs on top of the AT damage scale difference.
    I was working around minimizing the number of extra power picks dropping one low attack to take the snipe so your ranged single target picks would stay the same. The low end attacks in radiation are close.

    Quote:
    Also of the four you listed Dark and Psi might have snipes but they have no ability to access the fast versions without dipping 2 powers into the leadership pool, overslotting tactics and finding a slot for a kismet IO. All blasters have access to fast-snipes some of the time just from their primary/secondary.
    Some of the time turns it painful for blasters. At that point you are taking another ranged single target blast because when you don't have it available you need the other attack

    but speaking of psi if a corruptor has the recharge to run this chain

    will dom - tk blast - psi lance they are going to be putting out 71 dps unenhanced the shortest attack being 100 ft

    just who is the ranged damage specialist here ?
  3. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mauk2 View Post
    Whining because they finally made Assault Rifle, the MOST iconic of ranged damage sets, actually good?
    AR has always been good. For those in the know its been a top 3 overall set. Now its just overpowered.

    Also you are wrong about its damage being heavily resisted because between ignite and flamethrower you can put out an enormous amount of fire damage
  4. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood View Post
    How about looking at a set that doesn't have non-standard T1 and T2 attacks and actually uses the recharge and damage scale for the attacks on the different ATs. Energy Blast is probably a good example.
    Dark, archery, fire, psychic corruptors all gain a larger percentage from this change this isn't an isolated case. Also every corruptor no matter what still gets considerably more out of the change. They can all have 100% access while blasters can't.
  5. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Edana View Post
    So you are saying that blasters get less from snipes being made viable because their first couple of attacks are merely 'meh' rather than completely suck?

    Doesn't this suggest that blast sets in general could do with better early attacks?
    They could do with something. I would have liked to have seen the blaster single target attacks in general improved. Every blaster should have permanent access to a very good single target chain. Its what blasters are about. Solo courruptors shouldn't be able to pull ahead of solo blasters. (When you toss in debuffs and scourge to the above examples the corruptor is nicely ahead(depending on set))
  6. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Darth_Khasei View Post
    I don't see any reason to change DP.
    Because it makes sense to keep it overpowered for a very few people.
  7. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood View Post
    Yes yes, sky falling. Blasters obsolete. Objectively does the snipe buff help Defenders and Corruptors more than Blasters? Probably. Does it invalidate Blasters? No more than Corruptors and Defenders already do.

    The fact is there's been a strong argument for Blasters being obsolete long before the snipe change came along. To a large degree Scrappers, Stalkers and Brutes can deal damage as well or better and are a lot tougher while doing so. Corruptors and Domiantors can deal damage almost as well and provide lovely team buffs/debuffs or control. This change doesn't really impact that.
    Corruptors and Defenders got a much larger buff from this. That is without considering the fact it's much easier for them to benefit. Blaster T1 and T2 blasts are relatively standardized and both are pretty much MEH.

    Take Archery

    Code:
                       DPA
            blaster     Corruptor
Snap Shot    44           24
Aimed Shot   45           35
Blazing Ar   83           54
Ranged Shot  93           62
    The corruptor gets to drop snap shot losing what was by far the worst attack he had.
    The blaster is pretty much not getting any gain in his bottom attack.

    So the corruptors base DPS goes from 41 to 53 dps a 31% increase.
    The blaster goes from 59 to 73 a 24% increase.

    That is just wrong. You are already in a situation where people would rather have a corruptor or defender over a blaster to begin with now the gap in raw damage output is narrowed ?

    Edit: Its really painful if you compare the case where the blaster can't use fast snipe to where the corruptor can at that point an Archery corruptor is doing 53 base vs a Blaster's 59. No debuff considered.
  8. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mauk2 View Post
    ...whoah. That's a hella lot of work. Thanks!

    (reads)

    Ya know, I am completely fine with AR doing more base damage than fire. Fire does sick AOE and fire damage is MUCH less resisted. And frankly, AR is as iconic a set for shooty players as SS is for tanks/brutes. I SHOULD BE MOAR SHOOTY.

    This change is good for the game. (thumbs up)

    AR now has the best Single target and best sustained AoE the only thing it doesn't have is the best burst AoE. It has 3 excellent AoE attacks that it can keep firing one after the other (buckshot, grenade, flamethrower). A crashless nuke on top of that and Ignite again.

    Its hard to argue that a set can throw down

    Full Auto->Buckshot->flamethrower->M30 grenade


    And repeat at buckshot. Is ridiculously good to begin with now it has the best single target chain as well ? My AR blasters are going to love it, but really fixing the set by making it horrendously over powered ?

    I would have been plenty happy if they just adjusted the range of some of the cone attacks to be more consistent and adjusted the recharge time of the single target attacks.


    Edit: This really is a great argument that no matter what you do you should plan on doing the work to adjust individual sets to keep them in line. Right now we have a 50% variance between top and bottom on single target assuming everyone can get the new benefit. If they can't the bottom performers are going to be even worse.
  9. Another_Fan
    Very nice

    I didn't see it explicitly mentioned, so just to ask how did you allow for aim in the primaries that have it ?

    Edit: Also Noticed you were using flares in the fire attack chain instead of fireball.
  10. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Shubbie View Post
    Ar/time cor.......

    This is going to rise to a level of overpowered that has not been seen on these boards since ages long past......

    Self buff both to hit and recharge..... This combo is going to make any blaster look silly...

    Fire/time doesn't already ?
  11. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by StratoNexus View Post
    Sonic/Mental and Ice/Mental blasters UNITE!!!

    Picturing all the mitigation those particular combinations have makes me wonder if the were kind of OK? That said, in addition to thinking the sustain changes are not enough, I do think Drain Psyche should be adjusted as well.

    Well there were 2 areas that blasters weren't up to snuff on. One was mitigation and I think we are in agreement about mental.

    The other problem is every set, except possibly fire was short on damage (and that is arguable). Snipes are the damage enhancement portion.
  12. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood View Post
    That's a logical fallacy.

    Were Blasters underperforming? Yes
    Were some Blasters underperforming more than others? Yes.
    There are combinations that are getting 0 boost from the changes. Logically if all blasters were underperforming and you get 0 improvement you will still be underperforming.
  13. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
    Its only a sacrifice of damage if you can in fact hit more and you choose to hit less. But there's no reason to do that: you should hit however many you are capable of hitting with your playstyle: the tohit buff you get from that will be enough to hit the limit under the conditions I mentioned. But I'm not advocating deliberately trying to hit more than you would attempt to hit today, or alternatively deliberately trying to hit less. I'm only mentioning the threshold necessary to reach 22%, not advocating a specific target number to hit.

    Of course, your point about melee does bring up the case where a player chooses to not take Soul Drain at all, because they don't *ever* want to be in melee and it thus has no benefit to them. That could be particularly problematic for, say, AR/Dark, and probably worth mentioning to Arbiter Hawk. Perhaps Soul Drain could be altered to provide its frontloaded tohit buff even if it hits nothing, or there might be some other remedy possible.

    That would of course apply to the too awesome mental as well, seeing as some people take that set to get the extra cone attack from psychic scream and infrequently use drain psyche.
  14. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
    Slotted tactics and unslotted (for tohit) Soul Drain needs to hit three targets to reach +22%. Slotted tactics and Soul Drain 1-slotted for tohit requires hitting two targets. Slotted tactics and Kismet requires unslotted Soul Drain hitting one target.

    Whether its a source of humor to you or not, its a fact worth mentioning to players that care about facts.


    It hits 10 mobs so unless you can position it so it just hits 3 and doesn't aggro the rest of the spawn. Of course if you do that you sacrifice most of your +damage.
  15. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
    There's one other blaster that can theoretically get to perma +22%: /Dark when not combined with AR. But it requires significantly more effort than /energy because you need about +100% global recharge to pull it off, which is unlikely to happen in a leveling build.

    However, it does not require perma +22% to get perma insta-snipe. It just requires the tohit buff be up when snipe is recharged, and /Dark can get there with a little less effort than that: still very high relative to energy and devices, but not impossibly high.

    Which doesn't alter the fact that the blaster melee modifier for tohit buff is too low. But with the modifier reset to 0.125, Dark would be in the game without tactics and or the need to hit a high number of targets.

    LOL sorry I really don't consider jumping into melee range, Aggroing 10 mobs and then freezing myself for 2.5 seconds while I eat that alpha viable to get a snipe.

    If energy has to wear a chicken on its head dark has to wear the chicken suit.
  16. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by StratoNexus View Post

    It is unfair my Fire blaster gets Blaze. It is unfair my Ice blaster gets Freeze Ray. It is unfair my SS brute gets Rage and Foot Stomp. It is unfair my Grav controller's AoE stun can also position spawns. Lots of things are unfair depending how you look at it.

    I think you missed it. If you buy Arcanavile's line that all blasters were still significantly underperforming with defiance 2.0 then any change meant to help blasters that doesn't actually help all blasters is unfair.

    It gets worse when you look at the fact, this actually helps defenders and corruptors even more than it does blasters.
  17. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Cyber_naut View Post
    But wait, there's another kick to the happy parts if you're a blaster, the buff actually works better for some defenders and corruptors thanks to some of their sets offering to hit bonuses.
    Actually with minimal effort (tactics + kismet) every Corruptor and Defender can have the permanent fast snipe. The only blasters that can have the fast snipe on a permanent basis, are devices and energy. Energy has to take tactics, the kismet, and has to rotate Aim, build up and power boost (while wearing a chicken on their head)*




    *Actually the chicken is part of the changes to nukes coming soon.
  18. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Vitality View Post
    Thinking about it...they should have made it rely on a certain number of defiance stacks...for Blasters.

    Makes sense conceptually...if you assume that "charging up" is the cast time on snipes and the defiance stacks...

    ...before a fight...if you want to use a snipe...you have to "charge up" to use it...but in the middle of a fight...you're already constantly "charged" by your constant attacking...allowing you to use this attack much more efficiently.
    Absolutely.

    Blasters needed better damage anyway, tieing that better damage to a power that was avoided and then making it situational is ridiculous on the face of it.

    You would hope that the hybrid debacle was actually heard in paragon studios.
  19. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Stone Daemon View Post
    Why, conceptually, would it make sense to be able to blind-fire off a sniper shot at a target just because you happened to shoot a couple times previously?

    The second shot is easier than the first. Think Lee Harvey Oswald who got 3 shots off in 6 seconds on a moving target.
  20. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by StratoNexus View Post

    When you talk of accessible, are you strictly talking about perma fast snipes? Because fast snipes are readily accessible to every blaster build on a regular basis with out too much delay between the ability to use it (and using a snipe occasionally without fast cast is not a terrible thing).
    It is when you consider the costs.

    If you can't spec out of one blast power to take the snipe (IE the snipe is not always going to be there) you have to come up with a power pick and 5 slots to get that snipe.

    Even then if you use the snipe to best effect against spawns, Its going to be as an opener with both aim and build up active followed by your next hardest hitting attack (instant remove of a mob up to LT rank). At that point you have the snipe available 25% and it really didn't do you any good because there are still other things that can work nearly as effectively.

    If you go for making the snipe permanent on anything other devices, you are either going to be managing three click powers to keep it going or be forced into fitting a well slotted tactics and a kismet into your build and you will then be at the mercy of anything with minus to hit.

    Also since snipes come late in your builds using them for blasters really hurts exemplar builds.
  21. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BrandX View Post
    Is it enough of a DPS increase to make up for Time's lackluster -Regen?
    I have never really felt pain from times -regen its pretty easy to stack 3 or 4 time crawls on a target if you are on a team.
  22. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by EvilGeko View Post
    While I definitely have some concerns with these changes, I can't help but be giddy at how game-changing this is going to be for ranged blast classes.
    My fire/time corruptor is going from broken to plaid. If it was marginal to pick a blaster for teams before its now pretty dang black and white.
  23. Another_Fan
    It looks like the snipe changes are much more beneficial for corruptors and defenders than blasters.

    The net effect is that blasters are actually falling further behind because of the new snipes. Is there anything else you are looking to do for them ?
  24. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood View Post
    No, that's at level 22. All it requires is that you have Aim and Build Up and that both are slotted with SOs. Aim needs 3 recharge SOs while Build Up needs 3 recharge and 3 ToHit.

    I'll admit putting that many slots in Build Up at a low level is not necessarily a good decision but even with Aim alone you can have FastSnipe for 10 seconds out of every 45 using just by 3-slotting it with SOs.

    Now you can get Build Up doing FastSnipe with a low slot investment relatively early through the magic of Franken Slotting. If you slot it with the following enhancements at level 31 or higheryou get 22% to hit from it and the recharge will be about 50 seconds (that's enhancement level 31, you can slot them at level 28):
    Adjusted Targeting: To Hit Buff/Recharge
    Adjusted Targeting: To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance
    Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: To Hit Buff/Recharge
    Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance

    Alternatively you could just grab a Kismet IO at a very low level (min is level 10 although the level 30 ones tend to be cheaper) which means that Build Up needs less To Hit slotting (a single To Hit SO will do it)
    You aren't getting fast snipe 70% of the time with just SOs and you certainly aren't getting it without large global recharge.

    12 second recharge on the snipe
    1 second cast.

    With SOs you can get that down to a 7 second cycle which gives you 2 per build up type power

    With hasten that drops to 5.5 for the cycle.

    Unless you can get it down to less than a 5 second cycle you aren't going to get more than 2 per build up power and you likely will lose DPS elsewhere from trying to make it work.

    Not to mention going a little crazy making that work. Especially if you are on a high latency connection or one with packet loss.
  25. Another_Fan
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Starsman View Post
    I think we are getting somewhere here...

    So, what I am gathering is you dont really care THAT much about specific attach chains, or situational pre-fabricated chains, as long as you can recycle the attack power selection in less optimal chains, right?
    Well when you say less optimal, I would qualify that as less optimal but still reasonable.

    Quote:
    In a different way than you may think. Remember for Dominators, snipes are not interruptable and are basically ranged 20s recharged Total Fucus. For a domnator that cant leverage the new snipe mechanic, this is a pure nerf.
    Are you sure they aren't interruptible ? I don't take them on my doms anymore but I seem to recall starting them and interrupting them to build domination.