Edana

I'm not sure this would help that much. VS seems to love staying slightly behind you and not joining in when you move on to a new spawn; yet making it more aggressive would just increase the problems caused by an uncontrollable aggro magnet.

The duration of the pet build up proc is 5.25 seconds, VS attacks every 3.82 seconds so only one attack is affected for each firing. The proc has a fire rate of 17%. This means that 17% of attacks after the first will deal an extra 44.49 damage. VS can fire 16 times during the 60 seconds it is out so in continuous combat the actual average percentage of VS attacks that are affected by the proc is 15.94%. 15.94% x 44.49 = 7.092 extra damage per 3.82 seconds. The proc therefore contributes ~1.856 DPS.

By definition an attack chain repeats when you get to the end of it. If you include an AoE in an attack chain it has to be recharged by the time it comes around again.

The third blast in a set is usually on a 10 or 11 second timer, slightly shorter than snipes. 20s recharge ST powers in blast sets are mezzes. In order to use the chain you gave earlier we needed to fit 146% recharge into Zapp. Elec is not being unfairly treated just to try and make it seem weaker than it is.

I haven't even mentioned Static Discharge let alone "minutely focused" on its damage. No-one is "picking on" Elec Blast. Nobody is trying to prove it has bad ST damage because they don't like its hairstyle or are jealous of its ability to sparkle. Elec is what it is and all the numbers we use to determine how well it can do are the numbers the game uses to do it.

The suggestion to ignore your attack chain is a good one however so moving on: -

With no damage boosts other than 95% damage slotting and defiance: -

A chain of Zapp>Lightning Bolt>Charged Bolts>Ball Lightning requires over 213% recharge in Zapp, and Zapp is currently Zapp is the worst DPA power in that chain. A more usable chain would include a second Charged Bolts; both increasing the DPS and reducing the necessary recharge.

Zapp>CB>LB>Ball>CB repeats with only ~115% recharge for Zapp, Ball Lightning needs ~84% and Charged ~26%. This deals ~1032.5 damage over 10.03 seconds. 102.92 DPS. Adding VS's 86.76 every 3.82s for another ~22.71 gives us a total of 125.63 DPS.

Assuming you never get hit and that VS doesn't have any other targets to look at.

If you can somehow maintain the same chain using fast-Zapp (requiring 175% recharge in BL and 22% to-hit) this jumps to 145.1 + VS for ~167.8 DPS. Since both the first two powers in Elec and the Snipe are direct clones of the Energy versions damage-wise, Energy can run the same chain with BL swapping out for Burst and get 151.7 DPS on SOs and without needing to rely on Voltaic Sentinel's AI.

A team. If you've got tactics + kismet then any one other person on the team/league with tactics would put you over, get 2 others and the kismet isn't required.

Or team with a VEAT and let them get you there all by themselves.

A team of 7 AR/* Blasters lead by a Huntsman running dual tactics?

Yes.

Indeed. When I started doing the maths his was the last post. I then went and had dinner... Things moved on just a little in the meantime.

Basically I was seeing how much it took to make such an unusual chain competitive. The answer was 'a lot'.

No. The snipe changes are a response to snipes themselves being unpopular and underpowered; and the inferiority of ranged damage sets compared to melee ones.

The additions to the blaster only 'manipulation' secondaries are where blasters themselves are getting major buffs.

Oh the blaster certainly...

*Goes to dust off the psi/kin corruptor*

Indeed. You can get much closer to a proper assault rifle playing a spider with a huntsman build. This also gives you armour, which is far more prolific in FPSs than cloaking devices, non-damaging grenades and deployable AI gun turrets.

I also contend that generic soldiers in FPSs are not iconic super heroes.

Or to reduce the recharge time/endurance cost and leave the damage as is for the DoT bonus.

Didn't we go through all the i14 changes specifically to stop Domination providing a damage boost?

There are numerous ways to make VS invulnerable, the problem is letting the taunt hit VS without letting the target waste time attacking it. The first solution that comes to mind is tagging a placate effect to VS' blasts so it is fundamentally incapable of holding aggro.

From the store bought version on beta Achilles Heel is dropping a tier from 20% to 3PPM.

Remember that Neutrino Bolt was standardised when ported to Blasters, an Apocalypse proc at 90% recharge slotting is still ~29%.

I don't think this matches what people will expect from 'Energise'. All the effects are there but in proportions that deliver something different enough that it might warrant a new name.