BlackDecember
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:I guess that's what I'm getting at. Back in my day /NRG was the "best practices blaster." Is MM the new king in town?Originally Posted by Amy_Amp
In short, it's a solid overall set. I got a Ice/ice up to 32 on a lower pop server so when I wanted to make another blaster on one of my main servers I went for the "best overall blaster" and rolled a Ice/mm. It's a nice mix of ST, AoE, utility, and control. -
Quote:No, that was not in ANY way my purpose. Sorry if you misunderstood and took offense.Originally Posted by Zem
I think his purpose was simply to swoop into the middle of the argument and throw down the "You're doing it wrong!" card. Ironic, considering how he's complaining that little has changed in his absence. THAT sure hasn't changed.
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Quote:You're the second person to recommend MM to me as a secondary.Originally Posted by MutantX_7
I think my ideal duo would be a fire/mm blaster and an earth/rad troller.
Troller buffs you, nueters your enemies, and you destroy em. an ice/mm could work inplace if the fire If ice is your preference. Perhaps a rad or dark/sonic fender would be cool to pair with a blasyer as well.
Do you think it trumps NRG? If so, why? There wasn't an MM secondary back when I last played. -
Quote:That's a fairly broad statement, I realize.Originally Posted by Another_Fan
Just how are blasters meant to be played ? I find every combination I have played has required its own approach.
I guess my first answer would be, it's a game, so play blasters or any other archetype in the way that you personally find to be the most fun. As a general rule I believe people should play the way they WANT to play.
That said, I've PERSONALLY found that hovering, darting and staying at range to be the best way to play a blaster. So I build mind to do just that - to use range, mobility and my own skills working the mouse and keys as a defense as much as possible, as opposed to just standing there slugging it out. But that's how *I* play. If I came across as trying to tell everyone else how THEY should play, that wasn't my intent. Perhaps I phrased things poorly. -
Quote:Woah...relax there, big guy. I wasn't trying to start a fight, just trying to get the gist of what you were saying.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Now let me ask you a question. You quoted an entire post of mine that discussed some statistical analysis process that is involved in measuring how popular blasters are or might be, in response to another poster. Where specifically in that post do I give you any hint whatsoever that the devs balance the archetype based on primarily on, or even at all on, creation popularity? I've reread what I type and I don't see how anyone could possibly make that inference.
As you'll see if you read my previous post, I don't think there's a thing wrong with blasters. -
Quote:Are you saying blasters have historically gotten no love (and continue to get no love) because the devs consider them to be overly popular and don't want to encourage MORE people to roll blasters?Originally Posted by Arcanaville
This can be very difficult to extrapolate out of the data in the general case, but fortunately I have an out: I happen to know (although I cannot specifically repeat) how "clustered" the average leveling rate is across the the powerset combinations and archetypes across the entire playerbase. I don't know specifically how fast anyone levels, but I can say that, for example, taken across the entire playerbase no archetype is leveling twice as fast as any other. Its actually tighter than that, and that allows me to make judgment calls as to just how much actual spread is being induced in the data by leveling disparities. They have to be low at lower levels and cannot exceed certain values even at higher levels, which means its possible to extrapolate within some moderate error bars how much of an archetype has to be rolled, given how popular it is in the lower levels vs higher levels. In fact, to a first order approximation if 35% of all characters below level 15 is a blaster (just making up an example) then blasters have to be rolled at something close to that rate, because if they weren't that would imply they leveled even slower than they do relative to everyone else that was outracing them.
Furthermore, if everyone was outracing them by a larger than expected amount (we know everyone outraces them by at least a little on average) we'd expect the percentage of characters playing blasters to actually rise a bit with increasing level, and that doesn't really happen to a degree you'd expect. Alternatively, they would have to be abandoned at high rates even at relatively low or moderate levels, and that doesn't seem to happen either.
I discussed this a bit when I did my last analysis of archetype popularity, but given the data we have it would be extremely difficult to directly derive a conclusion based on the data but it is possible to indirectly derive conclusions by eliminating extreme cases the data excludes or strongly disavows. We can say with more certainty what the situation is not, and that provides at least some limits on what it is. For example, I can't say how often blasters are rolled (or were rolled when I last looked) but I can say they were not rolled more than half of all characters (dev statements contradict that) and I can say they were not rolled less than 25% of the time (this would contradict them being the most popular at all levels by a wide enough margin). The data strongly implies blaster creation rates have to exceed 30% and probably lie below 45% of all new characters. Given the maximum leveling spread, the data strongly suggests that the lower limit is even higher: at least 35%. The upper limit is probably marginally lower for the same reason. That means its between about 35% and maybe 42%. By process of elimination, we can get a fairly tight window.
It is possible even this analysis is wrong: this is just what I believe to be the most likely correct interpretation of it. Its not mathematically impossible for the number to exist outside that range, so I can't prove that analysis must be correct (I mentioned that as well in the last analysis I did). I'm about 85-90% certain its in that range though. -
Quote:Range is always how I've played my blasters as well because that's always how it felt to me that they were MEANT to be played. BU + 6-slotted Hover (which you can't do anymore) = ranged winning. Blapping...just not my thing, but then, I've always felt that if you play your blaster like a scrapper, you're gimping yourself.Originally Posted by Atomic_Toy_Guy
Sort of, Energy as a secondary is still my favorite in my book for blasters. But that is only because I prefer to play every thing ranged, thus Boost Range makes this even better.
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Quote:As Ice is, in my opinion, the most well rounded of the primaries, I'd probably still pair it with NRG. Fire paired with MM sounds to me like you'd be an AOE monster....could be fun.Originally Posted by MutantX_7
Nrg is still good, very good even, mental is just like a swiss army knife. ST immob, 2 st melee, 1 nicely ranged cone, a very good pbaoe, a +regen/+recove, buildup, with world of confusion (a toggle confuse/dmg aura, and a st fear.
Mental is just a very good well rounded set. Ice storm and the cone with psyscream does somr nice aoe dmg for a non aoe set. And mind probe (mentalS heavy hitting melee is adds to st damage amazingly. -
The more things change, the more they stay the same. You go away for a few years, come back, and people are STILL having the same argument. There was a blaster prejudice/victimization complex back then and I see things really haven't changed on that score. Here's my 2 cents...well, maybe just 1 and 1/4 cents since I've been away for so long.
Are blasters the hardest archetype to level to 50? They're one of them to be sure. But that's what I enjoyed about them. Yes, they're a challenging archetype to play but in that challenge, to me at least, there was always fun. Easy button spamming? If I was looking for that I'd play Space Invaders.
In my past experience those who hated playing blasters simply didn't know how to play them or didn't know how to manage them in groups. (Same with stalkers.)
My ICE/NRG blaster with his combination of range (which, yes, you have to know how to take advantage of), slows, freezes, knockbacks, hover and high damage made for a perfectly well balanced character that was a metric ton of fun to play. I never had issues soloing and I never felt worthless in groups.
Maybe the game has changed in the years I've been away but, from this thread, it doesn't seem to have changed that much. Now, just like then, if you try to play a blaster like any other archetype, you're going to struggle. But if you play one the way the way it was MEANT to be played...to me, nothing in this game is quite as much fun.
But hey...that's just what *I* like. If you like something different, there are a zillion other archetypes from which to choose.
And to any of you out there who choose NOT to include blasters in your groups. Try playing with one who knows his or her stuff. You might just change your tune. -
Quote:MM even over NRG?Originally Posted by MutantX_7
I played and absolutely loved my ice/elec blaster, which played almost exactly like a ice/nrg. After the introduction of mental manipulation however, I couldn't get over how much more I liked my ice/mm. Mental gives some added aoe and survival without sacrificing a whole lot of what my ice/elec had. If your starting a new character and love ice blast I strongly recommend an ice/mm for a slight change. Think of it lioe adding a new topping to the ice cream flavor you know you love.
Energy, in my day, was THE defining secondary set. Has the balance shifted? -
Since my wife and I are going to be playing as a team, we're actually thinking about switching up the roles. I'd go fire and she'd go ice. FIRE/NRG rocked pretty hard back in the day if I recall. Paired with an ice tank...could be fun.
Would a stalker/blaster combo be viable? Stalker for the bosses and fire blaster for the mobs? It would be glass cannon city but if you could kill things quickly enough it could potentially work. -
Quote:I guess it's a trade off...as it should be. Fire does more damage but you give up the control that Ice has.Originally Posted by Rad_Avenger
Its all about the Blaze, my brotha
I think it will depend on what my wife ultimately decides to play and whether or not we'll need me to have decent control powers. -
Quote:Thanks!Originally Posted by Rad_Avenger
Some general comments:
- All 20' attacks (i.e., Blaze!) were increased in range to 40', which cut into Ice's advantage with Bitter Ice Blast at 50'.
- So ... while Ice was the king historically, maybe not as much today.
- Bonesmasher still rocks the house ... Total Focus now no longer does a boss level stun, so that was a hit, unfortunately (but I think your guide didn't recommend Total Focus anyway).
Hmmmm, those are the key things I think were pertinent to your guide, which was awesome at the time
Would you say that FIRE/NRG is king now because BD DOES have a brother...Black Volcano. ;-) -
Thanks for the great, detailed response Teeto!
AOE was king way back when I played, too, which is why I chose to zag while everyone else was zigging and create a very focused single target damage character. Blasting minions is great but you still gotta have someone on your team who can deliver the BIG HURT to the lieutenants and bosses.
It sounds like, from your post, that Blizzard is now worth taking for its improved slow effects? It was always a pretty useless power back when I played and I believe my (now outdated) guide advised against taking it.
What I'd LIKE to do is build a new ice/nrg blaster from the ground up, level him to 50 and then do an updated Issue 21 version of guide. That's the plan at any rate. But I have a LOT to learn first. -
We played around with the ice and fire combo last night. A little obvious, to be sure, but fun.
It's funny someone mentioned a fire/em controller because that's what she ended up creating. Although she's still playing around with archetypes to see what she enjoys.
Something with some AOE damage to offset my single target damage is probably a good idea. Maybe a fire brute since, with Going Rogue, hero and villain archtypes can now pair up. -
So I'm back to COH and, what's different this time, is that my wife is going to be playing with me.
I think I'm going to revisit ice blasters as no archtype and power set was ever as much fun for me personally. What I'm curious about is, what would be a good complement to an ice blaster? My wife and I plan to play as a team and she was curious.
I told her to play WHATEVER she thought would be the most fun but she thinks it would be fun if our powers complemented each other.
Any thoughts? -
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I guess what they say is true...there really is no PVP community of any kind in COH. -
Quote:No one ever said being married was easy.Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
<shudders>
I'd rather spend the day getting root canals without anesthetic while being repeatedly kicked in the crotch than go to a Twilight movie or read one of the books. -
Quote:She does this. I go to Twilight movies. ;-)Originally Posted by Amy_Amp
So what you are saying is, you won the power struggle.
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Quote:Yeah, I've been getting the feeling that there's not exactly a robust PVP community in COH so that much has not changed since I last played.Originally Posted by TrainRobber
Fire is stronger ST target and AOE. Ice is of course safer. I think the game has evolved into a much more AOE oriented style of play. Solo its a great set, teamed, you may at times feel like you are not contributing as much as others. Single target of course has its place, but less than before I feel. Its still a great set, but probably overshadowed by others, except for solo play on a low players setting, which it will still excel at.
PVP, shruggs, didnt know COX had PvP. smile.
I hope single target still has a place in the game because that's always what I gravitated toward. My team role, whether I was playing an ice blaster hero side or an energy stalker villain side, was always that of boss killer. I'd build my characters specifically for maximum single target damage and would generally take on that role. Is that no longer viable in the new COH? -
Quote:It's funny...SO much has changed since the last time I played this game.Originally Posted by Gary
You need to purchase a wife - she will then take control of the situation - she will forbid the paying (and playing) of this nonsensical childish intrusion into your marital bliss, and you will be left with a feeling of 'I have done something good for my marriage today' and live happily ever after!!
Bless ya! x
Back then, my wife and I were in a bad patch in our marriage. I'd play for hours at a time and she'd get wicked pissed at me. But since then we've really worked HARD on our marriage (which now rocks, by the way) and we do many more things together...and that now includes playing MMOs.
We've done WOW together and now that we're bored with that I'm looking forward to showing her around what I still consider to be my all-time favorite game. -
I asked for this WAY WAY back in the day and I still think it's a great idea.
One of the reasons I drifted from COH to WOW in the first place was for open world PVP. What's great about open world is that it's not about getting into matches and racking up points for gear but, rather, about feeling that your characters exists in a TRULY dangerous world. When you can be attacked by another player at any time, it adds to the sense of adventure.
I'm completely on board with a full PVP server but, as COH has been around this long without on, I don't hold out much hope. -
Ice/Nrg blaster from WAY WAY back in the day (I even wrote a guide that's, apparently, still in existence). I was curious, in the years I've been away, is ICE/NRG still the bada**, single target damage powerset that it was back when I played?
And how does it do in PVP?
I'm curious because I'm considering re-created Black December (still the favorite of all the characters I created) and leveling him up all over from scratch. -
So, here's an odd question.
I'm downloading the COH client as I write this as it seemed easier than reinstalling my massive stack of disks from back in the day but, I'm curious, what exactly is included with that download? Just COH? COH and COV? Going Rogue?
I already own COH and COV but I stopped playing before GR. What do I need to purchase, if anything, to get the FULL City of Heroes experience? Thanks -
Quote:PVP never was COH's best asset. I think because they made the mistake of having PVP zones as opposed to all out PVP-servers.Originally Posted by Stealth_Bomber
Hey my wife plays sometimes also, send us a tell in game!
As for PvP, I think not so many people play in those zones since around Issue 13 or so. You might try the PvP boards. On the plus side, it's pretty easy to get Shivans now, because no one is there to bother you.
One of the things I really enjoyed about WOW was the feeling of being in a dangerous world where you could be attacked by another player at any time. I know someone people despise that but, to me, that made the experience all the more immersive.
I guess things haven't changed or improved with COH in that regard. Oh well, it'll be fun just to take my wife back through all my old virtual haunts.