I for one have been playing since BETA and have seen and swallowed alot of the changes that have come down the pike but here is what I am having a problem with. My favorite character is an AR/Devices Blaster and I have had to go through quite a bit of changes to not only my power sets but also my playstyle due to changes and/or restrictions in the game. Now with this current change that is projected, I am kind of finding my back against a wall. Here is the deal...
I have set up my blaster with two things in mind. One I wanted to kill whatever was in front of me fast enough to survive the onslaught that was coming my way should I leave anything alive after my alpha strike, and second, to strengthen my defense in combat so I wasn't so squishy. I did this in two ways. First I fully slotted every damage dealing power I have with Damage SO's. Fully slotted my targeting drone with accuracies and one endo reducer. giving me roughly a bonus of +100% to accuracy above and beyond what my base accuracy of my powers are. Then I proceeded to take so many toggles powers, that they leave most tanks in awe. So all in all I believe I have made one of the most defensive blasters in the game at level 50. But here is my gripe and some reasons why...
1. Blasters have NO STATUS PROTECTION! So to compinsate for this I had to take the leaping power pool with combat jumping (For Immobilize Resistance) and Acrobatics (For Hold and Knockback Resistance)
2. My Cloaking Device works no better than stealth from any other power set so I had to take Super Speed to be fully invisable to my enemies. Anyone with Devices will tell you that there is no way you can lay a mine in the middle of a group without the total invisability that SS and Cloaking device offers. Unless of course you wanna go with Smoke Granade, but after it was fixed, then overly nerfed IMHO, and the fact that super speed does offer superior travel, the choice of which one had to go was an easy one. May end up having to rethink this if the changes are made.
3. I also chose to take the Force Epic Power Pool so I could have some damage resistance which Blasters also do not get without taking a power pool for compinsation.
Results... I run every toggle there is to run and I still have a HUGE chance of dieing if they live longer than my first alpha strike. One of my favorite tactics is to use SS and cloak to get in a group and place a trip mine, then run out and fire full auto at the group before the mine detonates. Has worked great, and often I walk away in pretty good shape providing I hit everyone in the group with the mine and FA or only had to deal with one or two enemies at the end of my alpha strike. Now with the nerf coming to SS I have to run in, place the mine, run out, turn off super speed, and hit my FA then wait for the animation to go off. Problem here is that you have roughly 1.5 seconds before that trip mine detonates. By the time you run out, and turn off your super speed the mine has blown everyone across the screen. Now FA hits about 1/3 of the enemies that were grouped. Now even with Temp invuln, Hasten, Combat Jumping, Cloaking Device, and Acrobatics, I am still getting beat down. Ok so hit the Force of Nature, now the damage resistance is alot higher, but I am still dropping health fast. Fine, hit my bubble, now they hit me alot less but I cannot attack. Ok new strategy, find the guy who is gonna off me first, make sure health is at full, drop the bubble and deal with a scattered group. Oh man, looks as if I am still taking too much damage from the rest of the group. Time to run away. Hit the super speed and go, forget about that one parting shot with super speed on, it probably won't hit now anyways.
Hmmm what used to be a very quick death to a group has now turned into a nightmare with me running off, tail between my legs, leaving almost 1/3 of the group behind to shoot me in the back for my troubles. Now granted I could use a time bomb to give myself more time to get out of a group and set up for my attack. Now my time spent waiting around for time bomb to go off much less recharge is something approaching the amount of time it would take president Bush to balance the budget.
Stateman, you once said that you were not going to force any powers on any class in CoH. To some lesser degree that is true. So far I have been forced to take super speed in order to place mines inside a group where they are most effective instead of hoping that an enemy will happen to run over one and set it off or worse yet, have a time bomb detonate as a guy just happens to be passing over it. The other option is to take smoke granade, but that gives me no opportunity to get out of melee range and attack the group before the mine goes off. Hence, super speed is the only viable option here. The Leaping power pool, well I guess I don't have to take it but being as you have given Blasters NO STATUS PROTECTION powers to choose from I am kind of stuck with it if I don't want to have to carry around a dozen break frees and make sure they are always running during every fight. Guess I could go back to taking flight and be that blaster who hovers in the air sniping one guy at a time, taking 10 to 20 times longer to kill that same group of guys. I guess what I am really trying to say is something that keeps getting echo'd on these posts over and over again. Super Speed and Super Jump are not a game imbalancing power in PVE, unless of course you want Blasters like me to only be able to take out groups that we can kill with one mine, and spend alot of time hitting the hospital for everything else. You've made sure that the endo cost on both the powers is so high that leaving them on all the time can cost you dearly. I also have to agree with others that since you have given hover no type of status protection and only the ability the stay out of melee range that it is not on par with the benifits that one gets from combat jumping or hasten. As for fly, come on states, just up the flight speed some, granted you can fly high enough to not get shot and don't take the risks involves of running or landing on enemies, but to give it an accuracy penalty of -50% you've managed to kill it's effectiveness both as a form of combat and as a travel power due to it's speed. Please States, I am beggin ya, don't do the same thing to Super Jump and Super Speed.
All in all though, I am glad you gave us a free respec for the anniversary. It will help a great deal if and when you institute the changes to the travel powers. Either way I will accept the changes. I may not agree or like them, but I will accept them and if they are changed there is going to be alot of time spent on test trying to come up with a new strategy for dealing with mobs that con over yellow to me.
