BlackSly

One game-mechanic suggestion:

Learn how to jump-shoot. Turn arounds, fade-aways, hook shots, even dunks (jousts). You should only stand still to shoot if the enemy is under a status effect, or if you're in a team and well protected.

In every other situation, jump as you shoot, and jump in the direction that you want to end up. Pull by jumping out of sigh as you shoot, and even if you aggroed everyone, you won't get insta-shot. You may get insta-shot as they reach the corner, but that gives you a bit of time to eat Lucks or just to run, or for your teammates to pull aggro.

Jump backwards as you're fighting enemies. Jump over them if you have Hurdle + CJ. CJ allows you to redirect your jumping after you're in the air, and for that reason alone I highly recommend it.

Learn to jump, and you will learn safety. Hovering may be safe in some ways, but in others, if you shoot while hovering, you're stuck in a stationary position. Jumping allows you to move out of sight as you're unloading Full Auto on a crowd of baddies. If they aggro on you, at least they're not shooting you while the 6-second FA animation plays out.

Learn to jump, and most importantly, learn to jump behind corners.

[There's a lot that can be done to balance the power without making it frustrating to use.]

That's the best way to put it. The power needed to be balanced, but they did it in a way that makes it frustrating to use. There are other ways to balance it so that it's not an uber power... consider EMP Pulse, for example. Great hold, but 4 minute timer and -Recovery for a while. That's not unbalanced. Powers can be rebalanced without giving them frustrating effects like scatter.

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... I have to strongly disagree with how Spectral Terror is being treated the stepchild of the fear powers. While I do see that it has the potential to be very powerful, I believe this can be balance with end cost and recharge rate rather than random fleeing of villians. This random fleeing is what got the fear powers changed in the first place. Let's not take 1 step forward and then 2 steps back approach to this power.

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That's not a bad idea at all. The problem with Spectral Terror isn't that it does Fear. The problem is that with its base duration, you can keep 2-3 out without even slotting it... and if you slot it up a bit including an Endurance Reduction or two, the endurance cost is minimal.

That's why they changed it to a "flee" behavior. Because having a power that was like an 8-tick stacking Fear, and that was inherently permanent without even considering the Fear durations, was way overpowered.

Change the effect back to cower, and make its duration 4 minutes. People want to use it all the time? Great, force them to slot it for recharge. Then it WOULD be a great power (ranged area lockdown as well as debuff), and on the other hand it wouldn't be the overpowered 1-power, 0-slots, perma-lockdown that it was right after I3.

It is said by blasters, that "when anyone makes a mistake, it's the blaster that pays for it".

Here is a guide that will hopefully suggest to you how to avoid dying from your OWN mistakes.

ROLE: Your role in a team is to put up big orange numbers over the enemy's head. And to keep on doing so. Not shooting is bad. Dying is worse. Unfortunately, shooting draws aggro, which tends to cause death. So in many ways, your role in the quest to be the perfect blaster, is to balance aggro and damage.

MANAGE YOUR PROBLEMS: A blaster that shoots and complains about aggro is a blaster that needs help. Remember this mantra: you are responsible for the aggro that you draw. If you cannot survive it, don't draw it.

If you defeat an enemy by shooting at them, the aggro is managed.
If you shoot an enemy that cannot fire back (Held, etc), or that is debuffed so that they won't do much, the aggro is managed.
If you shoot an enemy that will not fire back (aggro is held by a tank or someone else), then the aggro is managed.
But if you shoot at a target, and will not kill the target with that or with subsequent shots, and that target is active, and that target will turn around to shoot at you... then you're going to face its aggro, and you need to make sure that you survive it. If you won't survive, don't shoot. Shoot someone else, wait for a hold, wait for a debuff, whatever.

PATIENCE: A blaster benefits tremendously from crowd control, debuffing, and aggro management by the rest of the team. But a blaster who fires before the enemy is properly grouped, controlled, or taunted, is not getting the benefit. And may be breaking the plans of the other teammates.

Know what your teammates will do with regards to debuffing, aggro management, and crowd control. Then, WAIT for them to do it. Then, go in and make scrappers jealous with the damage. Firing too early can lead to death. But, less obviously, you will hit fewer people if the tank hasn't properly grouped everyone (less damage!)... you will do less damage if you didn't wait for Freezing Rain, or Enervating Field, or Fulcrum Shift, or even Siphon Power. Waiting 5 seconds can give you a 30% damage bonus... why not wait?


OVERWHELM: This is part of managing your aggro. When you fire, make sure that you have your full attack cycle either all recharged, or you know that recharging powers will be ready by the time it's their turn. Also, make sure that you have the Endurance to fire everything. Firing all of your AoE attacks into a group, plus buffs like Build-Up, in short sequence, will often wipe that group out, or at least the minions. Plus, it gives only a short period of time during which you NEED the crowd control or the aggro management. Whereas firing them slowly, with a pause in between for endurance or recharge, will lead to a longer period in which you're drawing aggro from your targets.


CONTROL YOUR TARGETS: This can apply to pre-shooting control by laying down a caltrop field, or a trip mine, or even a Rain of Fire, in front of your position (not on the enemies). That way, anyone whose aggro you draw that comes to melee you, will be slowed or turned back. If you're about to open up with a single-target sequence on a lieutenant, open up with any CC power (Beanbag, Freeze Ray, Tesla Cage) first, then proceed to the damage.


SINGLE-TARGET AWARENESS: There are times when your AoE is not recharged, or you're not willing to fire it. Then pick a single target that you can defeat (again, part of the managing your aggro), and defeat it. Remember that a wounded minion is hitting the tank for as much as an undamaged one, but is much safer for you to annoy. So shoot at the wounded, shoot at the controlled, shoot at everyone that will not fire back.


SHOOT AT THE TANK: Always shoot near the tank. The tank can't avoid drawing aggro nearby, even if they don't use Taunt. But their auras and their attacks all draw nearby aggro, and will usually draw it strongly enough to keep mobs aggroed on them. So shooting near the tank will very rarely draw attention. Note that you don't want to shoot the tank's target if you can help it. The tank will often be aiming at the boss, and you want to kill the minions around (unless it's an Invincible Tank). If you do draw someone's attention, you're happier if it's a minion, not a boss.


WATCH YOUR GROUP: It's a reflex to back up when the mobs approach. Be careful doing that. You are often safer near a defender or a controller. It's hard to save the blaster who is running away, it's not that hard to save the blaster who is yelling for help 20 feet away. So stay close.

Do NOT stay close to the tank. If I have to tell you why, you've never been in the Sky Raider respec trial. Tanks kind of draw shots at them... when those shots are AoE, nearby squishies (you) tend to take lots of damage (so what else is new?).


TIMING IS EVERYTHING: Many of the ideas above come down, really, to timing.
Know when to delay. Firing powers soon as they're recharged will often not help much. Wait for the #2 power of a 1-2 punch to be ready, before firing off the #1 power.
Know when to shoot. Shooting in a full alpha strike, launching everything you have, is more effective than shooting, waiting, shooting, waiting, etc. The less time that you're drawing aggro, the safer you are.
Know when to wait. Do not shoot before the conditions are ripe. Wait for aggro management, wait for debuffs, wait for control. Frankly, in almost any team, initiating any fight (other than a snipe pull), the blasters should be the LAST to begin their attack sequence into the enemy crowd.


Watch your inspirations. They're how a blaster saves the day, especially Luck inspirations.

I'm going to wait to see how good this "runs out of range then cowers" power is before I say whether it's good or bad.

Let me put it this way: Dark defenders LOVE Fearsome Stare. Yes, it draws aggro (one shot), but it lasts long enough to be perma-applied on most groups. In other words, as a fear, it's a nice long-term lockdown power.

If someone runs out of ST's range and then one-shots me because I forgot about him, I deserve it. Same happens if I Blind someone and then forget about him. The real questions that I wonder about are:

1: How good is the "not far out of range"? Are we talking about "1-4 steps", or "1-4 ROOMS" in a door mission?

2: How large is the cone? Heck, at this point, I want a nice LARGE cone, since I have no real use for this power against -con mobs. I want it to fear ALL the even and higher cons, not slowly hit one or three at a time with a narrow cone. I want to be able to put it down on one side of a large group that isn't otherwise controlled, and know that the entire group will run to the other side, and stop there, not in dribs and drabs.

3: Most importantly. HOW LONG DOES THE FEAR LAST? If it's as long as Fearsome Stare, then we're talking some serious control... slotted up, people may be cowering for 30+ seconds, long enough to chain ST with Flash so that every mob is mostly locked down. Mostly because there will be periods when the Flash wears off, and they flee from the current ST. But if it doesn't last very long, if it's more a "run away now, cower for 10 seconds, then start fighting", then it's a scatter tool and useless.

In short, I disagree with people who aren't willing to pay a price for their control. I'm willing to get a scatter as long as it means that I can put down one or two STs in the room, and have mobs run from corner to corner, for as long as I'm willing to maintain the STs. It's a reasonable price to pay for a power that, with hardly any slotting, is "perma". And one that will reapply itself to work on bosses. And one that will fire again to hit what it missed.

But I'm not willing to pay that price of scattering and "soft control" if the duration of the control isn't worth it. I want the enemies cowering long enough to make it worth having scattered them.

Frankly, it may be a Terror, but I don't see why its wail couldn't be turned to an area Confuse effect. Fear next to it, and Confuse in a cone. Or, heck, the reverse. Confuse next to it, and Fear in a cone.

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ST, in the early days of I3, was overpowered

*snip*

a long-lasting, perma-duration, stackable immobilize
a great debuff, with the drawback that it takes some time to stack its debuff effects
a "slow firing" effect, similar to a slow power, that forced the mobs to fire back at a lower rate.


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Why do you think that made Illusion overpowered? Seriously, why?

Unlike Fearsome Stare (which unlike a lot of you, I've actually used), it was difficult to target the fear effect, adn the fear effect got reapplied every 6 seconds. Which meant you got shot every 6 seconds. By a lot of mobs. The only way to avoid that was . . . to control the mobs w/ Flash or Phantom Army.

IOW, yeah, ST was a great control power, if you were already controlling the mobs.

*rolls eyes*

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I never had problems getting all the mobs with one ST. Place the PA in the middle, and the ST a few seconds later on the side of the group. The cone would hit them all. Reapplying the cone did not cause them to retaliate, and if PA woke one up, it would retaliate at the PA.

It's true that ST was a weak opener given that it would draw one shot from everyone (but only one shot). However, if you could take that one salvo, then ST alone could perma-lock a group of enemies... and if you opened with PA, then PA would suck the initial salvo, and ST would then perma-lock them, and nobody would ever shoot at you. Keep them locked down and throw in PA as it recharged, and you could slowly kill a group without ever seeing a shot fired back at you. If you prefer to do it yourself, use Blind on a target, then SW him, while ST keeps the others busy.

I did try that, for amusement, and it worked... I think on occasion, one mob may run for some reason. I think it was the "default runner" out of a group.

I'd take it again happily. I'm just noting why the devs ripped it after seeing what could be done with it, and why we won't get it like that again. Earthquake functions immediately, so that's a benefit, but on the other hand, it's not as total lockdown as ST after ST gets going. Frankly, the only other power that locks down better for 10 minutes at a time, is Volcanic Gasses... and that's Earth's AoE Hold. ST would do the job on more people, for longer, than Flash, with the initial drawback that they get to fire back... debuffed... if you were in LOS and range (which you didn't have to be).

I'd take it like that in a flash. Problem is, I don't want to give up my damage as an Illusionist, and I would fear that if we got ST back as a great CC tool, that we'd lose out on damage for it.

Illusion controllers have always thematically lacked control to make up for the extra damage that they get in PA and SW. And for having certain tools that make them actually valuable against AVs. ST being one of those tools.

ST, in the early days of I3, was overpowered... not for the power itself. It was only comparable to Earthquake, then. But for a set that is supposed to lack control, it gave too much control. As someone said, putting up 2 or 3 STs pretty much kept the mobs all "locked down", immobile, and retaliating at a slow rate... and on top of that, with the stacking fear debuffs, they were greatly debuffed. In one power, it was:

a long-lasting, perma-duration, stackable immobilize
a great debuff, with the drawback that it takes some time to stack its debuff effects
a "slow firing" effect, similar to a slow power, that forced the mobs to fire back at a lower rate.

All that in one power that was perma'd out of the box. With no extra slots, you could drop it into a fight against 20 mobs, and then get to work with Blind and SW to finish them off one at a time, without the others retaliating. Think about that... Blind, SW, and ST... and you could probably solo the Respec Trial. And if you couldn't, then if you 6-slotted ST, you surely could. All the mobs would enter range, get feared, and wait for you to get around to actually killing them.

The "fix" to it, then, was to make mobs flee. So ST became a defensive power, like my blaster uses caltrops, to create a safe zone for squishies. Well, that's fine. Not all control powers need to be lockdowns. I'm fine with a defensive power, especially one that also has the bonus effect of being a great debuff against AVs, and unlike caltrops, debuffing the enemies that it repulses.

But it had one major problem: mobs wouldn't just be repulsed. They'd run for hte hills, and never come back. That made it, unlike caltrops, a power that instead of using every fight to create a defensive formation, I would use only in those fights where I really felt the team needed a safety buffer. And as someone said, I always dropped it BEHIND the team, figuring that if we needed it, we'd be retreating anyhow.

Well, the new change looks like it fixes that problem. Now, I can drop it on our location. Enemies come close, get feared, back away (debuffed), but don't run all the way to kingdom come. Instead, they will stay relatively close, where they can still be killed. I'm not sure if it will be a great power as I state it, mostly since I'm worried about the aggro it will draw, but at least in this design, I can see how it's intended to work (as a "soft" repel effect), and it seems as if it will do the job.

I took it for I3, I kept it (it was this or Mutate), and I never planned to respect out of it (I solo AVs, and it's a great debuff against an opponent that's nearly immune to status powers), and now I see it getting more useful in normal situations. It's not a great lockdown power, but frankly, Illusion isn't about lockdown, it's about chaos and damage.

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I dunno...maybe because some people, you know, actually want to do the trial and not farm it for XP?

I know, crazy isn't it?

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Totally. I mean, who'd want to, you know, finish the mission?

Besides, it's not as if the reply suggested that they don't finish, just that they also get all the krakens, and do it multiple times, once for each team member. Completely different story to do a mission multiple times, than to reset to farm.

What is the visual indication of a Hydra being held? Does it quiver?

I understand and agree with the problems that were noticed by the dev team.

I understand, but do NOT agree with the solution that was created (increased boss and AV statistics).

The reason is simple: If you could defeat a boss solo before, in most cases you can still do it. It just takes longer. As for AVs, it was a rare case that someone could tank the AV before, but now cannot due to the increased HPs. But it's common that someone now can no longer beat the AV's regen rate, even if that AV sits there yawning and doing nothing.

Really, the changes are too simplistic, and cause the following problems:
1: bosses are not so much more challenging (well-prepared, you still beat them), as punish you for mistakes or a missed attack instantly. Basically, you live more in fear of bad luck.
2: If you can defeat a boss, it still takes no special tactics... just outdamaging it, using the same tactics as before.

I really liked the elite bosses, mostly because they did things differently from other bosses. But, why don't other bosses just get more interesting? The things that made certain enemies dangerous and annoying but interesting to fight were:
debuffs
controls
summoning pets/minions/allies
buffs

NOT "damage". There are some nasty damage bosses out there, but increasing their damage doesn't make them more interesting and fun to fight, it makes them simply nastier.

Give us more bosses that summon pets, more bosses that will hit you with debuffs or buff themselves and allies, more bosses that use tactics such as flying around and shooting, etcetera. Don't make the bosses harder with pure numbers, make them more annoying by letting them do more different things.

And just like MoG, when you see some boss put the smackdown on you using some power that you thought sucked, it may make you re-evaluate the uses of that power.

What I don't understand is why they didn't just change Rooted to a large -Slow effect?

It would be as thematic, since if you can move enough to turn to fight people behind you, obvioulsy you're not frozen in place.

And it would be a lot easier to play with being slowed down as if by Caltrops, than with being unable to move at all.