Dragonhawk

While I really like the buffs for blasters, and I am happy with the idea of crashless nukes, i would like to see one other change done to them (well half of them). Around half of the blaster nukes are ranged attacks and the other half are melee based, and i would love to see all the nukes go ranged. I really never understood why virtually all our primary abilities are ranged and yet sets like fire, radiation, energy,... force you to go melee in order to use them. Particularly now when our mid range attacks (like Blaze) are getting boosted to 80 ft all the nukes should also be made into ranged attacks not just half of them.

One issue on the difference you may have experienced is that previously Total Focus would stun a boss level mob with 1 hit. It no longer does this and will only mez Lt level mobs in one hit now. Bone Smasher has a fairly high mez persentage so stacking the two can quite often mez a boss then. I would also look at two specific epic pools in your forties. Fire and Energy both have some nice perks to them that go with your power sets. Energy offers Personal Force Field which essentially makes you untouchable by mobs, while Fire offers a hold (which you can use with TF) and a self rez. I would also recomend speccing into the medicine pool and get Aid Self. Combine that with PFF and you can heal yourself back to full health while they swing harmlessly at you.

I know right now Seers are considered to be one of the better pets for blasters, primarily due to the Fortitude buff. The fact that they use psionic attacks and can fly if you take that travel power are added bonuses. What I am wondering is if anyone knows how good some of the new Lore pets would be and what kind of buffs they are giving? The Storm Elementals in particular interest me since they also fly and they dish out energy damage, which many of the adds in the trials seem to be somewhat more suseptable to.

I had this problem also. Game locked up loading in Lambda, I rebooted the game and when I got back into Pocket D I was unable to rejoin the trial. I know the instance wasnt finished. i whispered the leader who is in the same SG as me and he sid he had 3 crash on loading and none of them ever made it back in.

Personally I feel limiting the ftp people out of something as basic as private Tells is a mistake. They are a very basic and fundimental part of every mmo out there, and it seems far too resrictive to cut that part out of their experience. Ideally I am sure NCSoft would love any new ftp person to eventually upgrade to a subscription model and being a part of the ingame community would go a long way towards getting them to want to stick around and be fully part of the game.

I have people I know in WoW who got tired of the game and gave Rift a try, but due primarily to them not being able to find an active community (guild) that fit their needs they eventually drifted back to WoW and the people there they knew. I would personally open up Broadcast, Tells, and the Help channel to everyone. If you want to keep things like the AE, e-mail, Trials,... either as part of an upgrade package or purchaseable that is fine but keep things like friend lists and communication channels open to all.

[QUOTE=Wicked_Wendy;3662692] One more suggestion.. Let's add a new Giant Monster to the zone. The Japanese view dragons as a source of power and magic so let's add a dragon with fire and some magic attacks. Before the posts start.. Yes I know the Devs say that adding animals that walk on 4 legs isn't feasible, or whatever, but not all dragons walk on four legs.. I have seen plenty of drawings, ect where a dragon walked upright on two legs similar to a man. Heck some dragons have even been depicted as shape shifters that can assume human form.. How about we make the War Lord in the TF a shape shifting dragon. Defeat him once and when he arises he takes on Dragon form to battle the TF again. Then have a similar dragon, the Spirit of a defeated war lord, appear from time to time in zone to be battled seperately. [QUOTE]

Actually most Asian dragons are more snakelike in appearance. While they do have legs they tend to move around more snakelike or are flying/hovering on a routine basis. They also have wings that are generally too small to provide suficient lift without the aid of magic, unlike European style dragons which are more lizard like and have much larger wings. Since NCSoft has already made that snake faction in CoV (dont remember the name offhand) it is probably technically feasable to make a giant snakelike dragon.

With the new trials in I20 and the new comodity of Incarnate Threads, instead of the Shards used to unlock/construct our Alpha abilities, it has added a new dilema to the game. It will soon be very difficult if not impossible to get an alt done up as an incarnate. Already it is much more dificult to get a run going from any of the previous shard run TFs (ITF, STF, LGTF,...), and this will only get worse as time goes on. So anyone developing a late blooming alt wont have any viable way to set their toon up as an incarnate, even if it becomes their new favorite.

I know you can construct the Alpha abilities with threads, which can allow someone to reach their T4 if they are only at T3, but it doesnt help those who dont have a toon even Alpha slotted yet. If you arent Alpha slotted you automatically get a -4 lvl adjustment while in any Pretorian instance (Apex, Tin Mage, BAF, Lamb), so nobody is going to take a person into a trial that isnt Alpha slotted and at this point would probably be very reluctant to take someone who isnt lvl shifted up to +1 yet.

I have a twofold solution to address this issue.
1) Cut the number of shards needed for your Alpha (only) in half so that common components would only take 2 shards to make it rather than 4. Keep however the Notice of the Well as a T3/T4 component.
2) Make shards tradable, that way people will still do the TFs as farms and people can outfit alts at any point in the future by buying shards from Wentworths. Keep the Notice of the Well as nontradable however.
This should allow people to get any alts caught up to the pack for the future, but still have a builtin time constraint by keeping the NotW items nontradable and only attainable by the weekly Strike runs.

I am a fire/energy blaster and went with the Reactive (fire dot & resistance debuff) for my Interface slot. I am at tier 3 and that will be my next upgrade to tier 4, so I am debating on which way to go, since each T4 uses different Very Rare items. I am wondering which would provie the best overall dps increase, the 75% resistance debuff/25% fire dot or the 75% fire dot/25% resistance debuff?

Another possibility is use the escape button to get out of the cutscene, but once youve unlocked it you can view it any time using your option menu or have a static viewer point that unlocks any cut scene associated with a specific TF/Trail. You could add a plaque next to Statesman, Lady Grey, Pocket D,... and people could just click on it if they wanted to see the cutscene over and over. Or just put it in your options menu somewhere with a list of all the cutscenes youve unlocked.

Blizzard used the static spot in WoW during the Lich King expansion pack with great success. You could see the cut scenes from the two big events (attack at Wrath Gate & the Death of Arthus) any time you wanted after they were unlocked. I personally prefer it being a more personal system so that it would be in your option menu and would include any cutscenes from quests as well as the TF/Trial ones.

How about the bosses themselves. Most of the critics I hear from say its the AVs that destroy fire tanks. So in the new content I am specifically interested AV input like Battlemaiden, Siege, Nightstar, White,... As far as the teamwork end I agree it is a must in the new content as is AT placement.

With the new league setup I have noticed some people seem to think as far as buffs go it doesnt matter what ATs go where. I think they are assuming that buffs/debuffs are raid wide vs confined to your specific group. However the interface is setup so taht buffs/debuffs only benefit your specific group. So if you have a radiation def debuffing the boss then only the people in his group are getting the benefit from the lower hit, defence, resistance, & damage output. Anyone in the other group(s) are still facing an AV with normal stats. I would recomend that if you have a limited number of radiation defenders on your run that at least one (preferably two) be placed in the group with the tank or tanks that will be on the boss. The lowered hit and damage output from the boss on the tanks, benefits the tanks more than the lowered resistances benefits the dps.

I dont know if any exact calculations have been done yet but going by the new hitcap numbers dps needs and how often tanks are getting hit now compared to content where they were softcapped on def, it seems the new softcap (not including lvl shifting) is around 60% vs the 45% it used to be for normal content. Once you are lvl shifted to +2 or +3 it should be somewhat lower. So lowering the hit on a +4 AV could make a major difference on tank survivability.

You have said that you have tanked most of the content with your fire/fire tanks, and I have heard from a few people how a fire tank cant main tank the new incarnate content (Apex, Tin Mage, BAF, Lambda). Have you tanked any of these or do you know of any fire tanks that have? If so what are your experiences tanking these and do you have any tips specifically for surviving these instances considering the higher lvl mobs and the higher hit rating they have? Also this is the build I did on my fire/fire tank. Its a bit unorthidox but at least on an ITF Im pretty much indestructable.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.93
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Magma core IO: Level 50 Mutation Tanker
Primary Power Set: Fiery Aura
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Melee
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Blazing Aura -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(5), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(5), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7), Oblit-%Dam(9)
Level 1: Scorch -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(37), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(37), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 2: Fire Shield -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(15), RctvArm-EndRdx/Rchg(15), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(40), RctvArm-ResDam(42), RctvArm-EndRdx(50)
Level 4: Fire Sword -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(34), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(34), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34)
Level 6: Healing Flames -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(19), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(19), Dct'dW-Heal(40), Dct'dW-Rchg(40)
Level 8: Combustion -- Insult-Taunt(A), Insult-Taunt/Rchg(9), Insult-Dsrnt%(11), Erad-Dmg(11), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(13), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13)
Level 10: Boxing -- Acc-I(A)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 14: Super Jump -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 16: Plasma Shield -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(17), RctvArm-EndRdx/Rchg(17), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(42), RctvArm-ResDam(42), RctvArm-EndRdx(50)
Level 18: Taunt -- Zinger-Taunt(A), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg(45), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(46), Zinger-Acc/Rchg(46), Zinger-Taunt/Rng(46), Zinger-Dam%(48)
Level 20: Burn -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(21), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(21), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), Oblit-%Dam(25)
Level 22: Temperature Protection -- S'fstPrt-ResKB(A)
Level 24: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(25), RechRdx-I(27)
Level 26: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/EndRdx(A), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(27), S'fstPrt-ResKB(29)
Level 28: Weave -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(29), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(31), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(43), RedFtn-Def(43), RedFtn-EndRdx(43)
Level 30: Fire Sword Circle -- Insult-Taunt(A), Insult-Taunt/Rchg(31), Insult-Dsrnt%(31), Erad-Dmg(33), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(33), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33)
Level 32: Rise of the Phoenix -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 35: Incinerate -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(36), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(36), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 38: Greater Fire Sword -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(39), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(39), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(45), EndMod-I(45)
Level 47: Consume -- Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(A), Mocking-Acc/Rchg(48), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(48), Mocking-Rchg(50)
Level 49: Maneuvers -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 50: Spiritual Core Paragon
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Heal-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(3), EndMod-I(3)
Level 4: Ninja Run

I have noticed an issue with capes that seems odd. On my older toons that have been around for years I get both the single (1 shoulder) and double (2shoulders) mantile option for my cape options, but on any newer characters I have created (in the last yr or so) I only have the option of the single mantile. I have changed hairstyles in case that was an issue and tried various shoulders, as well as no shoulder pads, with no change in available options. Is this an issue that others have had also? Or does anyone know why this has happened, and if its something I can get a GM to fix?

Looking at the items needed to make your top level alpha slot it looks like making certain tier 3 ones are required. For example it says that if I want to make the Muscular Total Core Paragon I need both the Partial Core Revamp and the Partial Radial Revamp. Does this mean tht if i made the Muscular Total Core Revamp its basically just a wasted alpha slot? I know you can swap them in and out but it seems a waste to even allow players to reach a dead end in terms of upgrading alpha slots and have to start over.

Thank you for the info about the differences between going after S/L and melee. For now I will probably stick with softcapping melee and getting S/L close to the 32% mark. My tank is my alt as I spend most of my time as a blaster and I just cant see atm spending around 4 billion on an alt to have him decked out. Should the price of the Kinetic Combat set ever come down or I deside to make tanking my primary role in this game I would look into capping S/L. I would also probably role another type of tank that is more well rounded in the tanking dept, with some builtin def other than weave (current tank is a fire/fire tank).

I usually see tanks/brutes/scrappers trying to softcap defence for smashing/leathal attacks. My thought is that softcapping melee would be better though. I know that most of the melee attacks are S/L but there are a few things in the game that use other types of melee based attacks (some of the Crey agents use energy attacks for example), so I was thinking that slotting IOs for melee would be as good if not better and it would certainly be cheaper since the Kinetic Combat set usually sells for around 200 million each. The KC set also seems to be the only way to reach the sofcap for S/L.

On a side note when using Mids hero builder and trying out various sets I seem to be getting wierd def totals. If I put in the Multistrike set (1.875 melee def) on my aoe attacks it shows me at 35% melee def, but if I swap to the Obliteration set (3.75 melee def it actually shows my melee def going down to 31.4% melee def when by all rights it should be going up to about 40%.

In terms of what I have for my APP I chose Force. Both PFF and FoN are just too good to pass up. I dont wind up using FoN alot in groups, but for soloing its preiceless, and PFF is just great either solo or groups for saving myself, if the healer is too far from you or busy atm. For pool powers I already have flight (hover & fly), speed (hasten & ss), and medicine (aid friend & self).

Using Mids and playing aound with various abilities its showing assault basically boosting damage between 10-20 (Fire Blast goes from 200 to 210 & Blaze goes from 403 to 423) for an endurance cost of .3. If I get manuevers also I boost my ranged def from 25% to 27% and with all my toggles running I will go have an Endurance drain of 1.33/s and a endurance regen of 2.94/s so basically 1.61/s of regen for my attacks (regen goes up to 4.77/s with FoN). If I pick up assault and skip manuevers it looks like my options would be whirlwind, group fly, resurect or repulsion field. All of them could have some situational usefulness but none of them would be a power I would use on a regular basis. I was thinking the resurect/tp friend combo since Ive been on many a speed run where if people dont have stealth and the healer either doesnt have tp, is dead, or their rez is recharging. So that combo seemed to have some situational usefullness as well.

Im trying to deside on some pool powers for my Fire/Energy blaster when I19 hits and fitness becomes an inherted ability I am desiding on what pool power to pick up in its place. I will also be grabbing up Fire Breath and slotting that up (I will then have all my fire powers but RoF). After slotting up all my attacks I wont really have any slots left over so I am desiding on what two pool powers to take that will be useful without any slotting. So far my choices seem to be Leadership (Assault & Manuevers); Pressence (Provoke & Intimidate); or finish up Medicine (Stimulant & Resurect).

Provoke I know is pointless but was thinking the fear might be useful for some CC. Leadership buffs dont seem to be worth the endurance drain when run by a blaster so doubtful Id take them. Grabbing Stimulant and Resurrect from the Medicine pool (I alrdy have Aid Other & Self) might be a bit useful at times in groups since I am fully stealthed and can reach them in any part of the map. I might consider grabbing TP Friend instead of Stimulant if I go for the Rez. I already have Speed & Flight for travel powers. So any thoughts or ideas on the subject?

Ok currently on the build I am using the most (I did dual spec) I dont have RoF or Fire Breath (It is on my other spec) and my secondary is Energy of which I have BS, Buildup, TF and Boost Range. So currently I am running with 16.5% recharge and an 8.5% damage buff. If I swap swap my sniper attack IOs (SotM for EC), I will go up to 23.75% recharge and 11.5% damage buff for a ranged def loss of 2.19%.

The build I most enjoy playing is based more around killing bosses and elites vs mass killing minions, which is why I have Blazing Bolt instead of Fire Breath (for pulls and one shotting the tag along minion that most bosses seem to have). My build with Fire Breath is a mix of HOs and SOs atm.

Also concerning the hold proc on Decimation, does anyone know what mag it is? As I am figuring the only that will live long enough to see it proc would be a boss, so I am wondering if its a high enough mag to hold a boss in one shot

Currently my fire/energy blaster has Thunderstrike slotted up in all my single target ranged attacks (flares, fire blast, & blaze) for the ranged def (currently at 30% with hover running). I was wondering though if it would be worth giving up some of the ranged def to slot one of the abilities with the Devastation set (prob on Blaze) and the Decimation set (prob on Fire Blast). It would drop my ranged def to 20% but give me a 3% damage buff, a 6.25% recharge buff and a random chance at both Hold and Buildup.

I was also debating a similiar swap with my Blazing Bolt I currently have Executioners Contract for the 3.13% ranged def and was thinking of going to Sting of the Manticore for the 3% damage boost & 7.5% recharge timer. I would loose 2.19% ranged def there. Any thoughts on if either of these IO swaps are worth it?

I like the option of taking existing powersets and have the devs add new animation options for them aside from just their hands. Eyes and chest (tihink Iron Man's chest beam) would probably be the only 2 options needed (maybe shoulder one if they ever add backpacks). Then you can have your ice/fire/dark/rad/... fire from whichever spot you desire. For obvious reasons I would say that any powerset with a weapon and Sonic (sonic eyebeams?) would be excluded from this option. As a personal opinion from playing a fire blaster, I feel that Flares would look great as an eye based attack. There are also a number of heroes from multiple comic universes who use eye beams for at least some of their attacks that, so that there wouldn't be any copyright issues.

That is definately a start. I have always felt one of the biggest weaknesses to this game is its raid/TF content. In my opinion endgame raids should not be able to be pugged and completed in 1 hr and that every AV fight amounts to nothing more than tank & spank. I will admit that I havent been on CoP or the Rikti raid, but I did numerous Hami raids (before the changes) and it was sad that after dealing with the nuclei, all that was required of most players was nothing more than spam 1 attack/hold till he was dead. A few times when I had to go to work I just set one attack to autofire and told my wife make sure my toon doesnt log out before Hami is dead.

This may be opening the door to the 500 lb gorilla in the room, but one of the reasons that WoW is so successful is that they have some of the most well designed raids out there. Some are tank & spank but most have interesting mechanics that force everyone in the raid to stay on their toes if you want to see the boss die. I would love to see some more variety show up with the various boss fights in this game.

As to my Action bar idea I would like to be able to set up bars so that if I want 1 bar of 4 buttons and another with 12 and a third with 6 I can have them and set them up in any pattern I choose. So if I wanted a 6 button bar that I could set as 3 across and 2 deep I could do that.

With the buffs I have an Rad/Psi defender as well as a Ill/Rad controller so i can speak from experience the more visual buff they gave rad didnt really help. Even when Im soloing and have 3 mobs on me it can be hard to spot which one Ive debuffed at times, so running with a group of 4-8 and the corisponding mob size that a team like that will spawn still makes spotting the debuffed mob nearly impossible. I play a hunter over on WoW also and I can tell you having a big red arrow (Hunter's Mark) pointing down o a mob is infinately easier to spot than a somewhat stronger glow effect at their feet.