FieroFuego

Bah! Let stalkers have their due....

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One of my favorite tactics, actually. Nice to see other folks using it.

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Isn't this tactic the very reason they put in supression on SS.

I don't agree with supression, but I don't think a dev should be promoting a tactic that other devs have deemed "broken".

Get rid of all supression, thats what I say!

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Down w/ supression!
Preach brotha!!!!

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With Enhancement Diversification comes a benefit for ALL City of Heroes powers.

Every power, across the board, is getting a 13.33% reduction in its Endurance cost.

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Here is an out of game metaphor for this:

I am going to stomp on your genitals....but every time I do I am going to give you an ice pack.

Wow...thanks for taking care of me.

Ok....so let me please offer my sincere and non-sarcastic solution to this whole ED fiasco (with the End Discount gravy). Abort!!! Don't do it. I know you have worked on this for 6 months. And you probably have to answer to some suit who wants status reports and espected customer gain reports or some junk. But I think it is better to admit when you have made a mistake and move on...than to flatly deny a mistake has been made and charge ahead with a convoluted idea that is going to really disappoint a good number of your loyal subscribers.

And if you listen to this....please PM me so we can talk about Defiance and how lame it is and what we should replace it with.

Ok...so here is my take on all this defiance crapola.

Quick Summary: Defiance is pewp....remove suppression instead.

Explanation:

Back in the day...a blaster could zoom into range and do heinous damage and then get out of range if it all goes bad. - The Devs don't like this.
However this is the style of play I used for pretty much the whole 50 levels of my Fire/Fire Blaster's career. My SG often teases me because I would end up with debt so often from employing dangerous "all or nothing" strategies.

This seemed to be fine....right up until heroes started fighting other heroes in the arena. All of a sudden the melee classes are complaining because the blasters are using their range advantage and their travel powers to keep the range advantage. -The Devs don't like this.
So they put in the infamous accuracy penalty on all the travel powers (so they are now all as screwed as flight has always been). The world nearly comes to an end because everyone has such a fit about this (even non-blasters....who'd have thunk it). -The Devs don't like this.

So they come up with this suppression business...which though not as sucktastic as the -acc penalty (which they removed from flight....thanks...it's about time ) is totally annoying and puts blasters in great danger. So now all the blasters moan and complain (I include myself in this btw) about how our survivability is pewp now. -The Devs don't like this.

So...they try and "make good" by "hooking up" the blasters with the following in i5:
More Hitpoints - Who's going to complain about this? Maybe Defenders...but they are getting the most new powersets so we will just tell them to hush.
Raised Damage Cap - Thanks...not really needed from my standpoint...but I'll take it.
Defiance - Same sentiment as the Raised Damage Cap...but even more so because it encourages me to get into 1 shot range (aka not full health).

So here is my suggestion...forget all these travel power substitutes....just give us back our travel powers. You can keep defiance...it's no good...compared to the ability to escape a bad situation. You can keep your extra hitpoints...if I do enough damage and play it right...I shouldn't need that many. The damage cap raise...it would be nice to keep...but I take my mobility back in a heartbeat in place of it.

If you are worried about the melee guys in the arena...please don't. So many melee AT's have a range trick up their sleeve that immob's or stuns you it isn't funny. You can bet that if they are hardcore PvP'ers they are definitely going to have those tricks built into their builds. And also there are probaby a great number of people who don't give a damn about PVP and just want to fight the villains in PVE.

Miss Dynamite of Victory
Miss Dynamite Pic

Bah...the light of day is overrated.
You can get posters with stars on them.

Dang TJ!
How much do you play?
That is a pretty impressive stable of heroes.
I'm doing good just to have my second primary char in Brickstown by now....

Hey Spongecake....thanks for taking the time to make this guide.

I hadn't orignally intended to be a form specialist...but that is just how it worked out. From my blaster background I 6-slotted the Nova AoE's...and learned the good angles to launch the cone and burst AoE's.

You are 100% right about Dwarf form...that is what makes my Kheldian almost the equal of my blaster. While my blaster can do more raw damage...my Kheldian is not insta-killed if he doesn't eliminate all the targets with his first volley. I 6-slotted Dwarf form 4 resists and 2 End Recovery. I love how resistant Dwarves are to hold and mezz.

Human form I had to get the 2 big ticket punches you are talking about. I have always been a huge fan of the Total Focus animation...it looks and sounds amazing...and the damage is staggering.

Quantum Flight is nice...and it activates WAY quicker than phase shift...but the amount of end it sucks down is insane.

Conserve Power is awesome...I highly recommend it.

Photon Seekers...I was with you...I thought they would be part of my "opening move combo". But I am here to tell you....they are pretty weak. Not that the damage isn't good...but they are about as dumb as a brick. If they had the AI that Fire Imps do they would be awesome...but much of the time they seem lost or confused.

I had planned to respec in the late game as human form kheld...but once you get used to form switching and have good binds to switch to a form and swith your power tray simultaneously it is pretty fun.

I remember the hours I spent drooling over all the options in the character creator in beta. Going through Outbreak and actually reading everything all your contacts had to say...because you didn't know squat. The biggest thing that left a lasting impression on me though....

I remember appearing in Atlas Park for the first time....at the bottom of the stairs....the Atlas Park theme music playing...seeing huge amounts of heroes...most of them like me....experiencing the game for the very first time.

I still kinda get a taste of that vibe when I return to Atlas Park and hear that music play...

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IV. Extreme racism will not be tolerated.


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Hahaahhhaaaha....yes yes...we can all agree that extreme racism is bad. But some light racism is usually OK.
Example:
Cr@cker = bad...mean spirited.
H0nky = Funny...this one is OK...just ask George Jefferson. But don't ask Weezy...

Go.

A lot of people have made some really great suggestions (alliances, change SG colors, being able to have the colums sort again), but here is mine:

I would love to have events that my entire SG could partake in. I remember reading about the Faultline trial in the game manual and couldn't wait to go for that with my SG.

Heh heh no doubt...I had added it to favorites along time ago...and saw some activity on it.

A friend of mine is a Fire/Dev blaster...and that is where he has the advantage over me (Fire/Fire) is that he can actually time his Time Bomb, Trip Mine, and Fireball (or Inferno) to go off in such rapid succession that the villains have NO chance to respond.

The only thing I have on him....is to more easily hit the damage cap with Aim+Buildup. Which has allowed me to slot Inferno with 3 dmg and 3 rechg and throw down Inferno alot more often.

I'm just really curious to see how a fully slotted Nova form Kheldian will perform in comparison.

I'm sure that will resurrect this thread and start the next great debate.

Well...that's why the first point I listed in my summary is that no blasters suck. Believe me...I have rolled with Electrical Blasters and they far from suck. In fact...they are probably better at doing missions than I am.

But the example you give (and I'm also not trying to be jerk here in the least just pointing out what I am talking about in regards to large groups) says that you use aim+buildup+short circuit+ball lightning and the mobs have zero endurance (which is pretty kewl) and they are half dead. With Fire (and I assume AR...but don't know first hand) though...that is the end of the fight...there is no followup unless there are lieuts or you missed one. You may think that is BS...but I can totally show you.

Again...I'm not even saying blasters that are not Fire or AR suck...I'm just saying that it is hard for them to have the same type of AoE effectiveness. And further more I'm saying you shouldn't have to defend yourselves because some guy wrote a guide. You should play your char the way you want and choose the powers that you want and who cares what RSRobinson or some kook named Fiero Fuego have to say about it.

Does that make sense or is that just a bunch of rambling?

Well Classic you have managed to repeat the argument that raged on the middle pages of this thread. It's almost like there is an electrical blaster echo...and every few days an electrical blaster has to come on this thread and defend themselves. Let me give you the quick summary.

1. Blasters as an AT are crazy powerful. None of them really "suck".
2. This guide was written in the Pre-Issue 2 era of powerleveling which focused on streethunting large groups of minions.
3. This guide is ONLY talking about powerleveling...and at the time the way you power leveled was to perform alpha strike hits on large groups of the highest con minions you could take down in a single salvo. The large groups part of this can be best done by Blasters who have more than 1 hard hitting AoE attack. That's why AR and Fire are said to be the best. Energy, Ice, and Electrical just can't do this as effectively as AR and Fire.

What does this mean? It means you don't have to defend yourself. Electrical, Ice, and Energy Blasters all can be really effective at what they do...but what they can't do is run up to a 10+ group of orange 5th Column or Crey minions and end them in 2 shots....and do that again to the next group they see.

This guide has some really good info (especially of the Pre-Issue 2 game...some stuff has changed) but when it all comes down to it....play your char how you want to play him/her. Just because you don't follow this guide doesn't mean your char sucks. Have fun.

Hey PixelShock,

I would have to say a great deal of the volume of messages in this thread is electrical blasters defending themselves. Let me summarize so you don't have to read the billions and billions of posts.

Electrical blasters are not teh suck...they just aren't as good at harvesting large quantities of xp by streetsweeping (aka powerleveling) as Fire/Dev and AR/Dev blasters.

With Issue 2's sweet new xp mission rewards elec blasters might actually become the super xp machines....since they tend to excel at mission.

Bottom Line: Don't let anyone else decide for you what is best for your char. Do it yourself and do it because you like the powers. Then you will never be disappointed.

Hola Xactoman,

I'm no RSRobinson but I'll take a stab at answering your questions based off what I know from other Fire/Dev blasters (I am Fire/Fire).

1. Here is a list of the fire powers that it is probably good to 6 slot: Fireball, Firebreath, Blaze, & Inferno. I believe most F/Ds slot those powers with 6 damage. You will also want to 6 slot Hasten and Stamina with Increased Attack Rate and Endurance Recovery enhs respectively.

2. The big ones in Dev are Targetting Drone (all ACC) and Trip Mine (all dam). Not sure if you are going to use Timebomb or not...though I have heard you can stack tripmine and timbomb attack with Inferno and it is just crazy.

3. Most blaster defense powers are using the Defense Buff enhancements.

Hope this info helps you out.

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Statesman, I agree totally that you need to adjust the game, sometimes significantly, to keep it fun long term.

The point I would like to add is to make sure that risk=reward always. At this time we could argue that risk is not very high, but at the same time advancement is also very slow lvl 40+.

So when you increase the difficulty of the higher end game please also adjust the reward so we still want to go out and take the greater risks.

If you just make it harder their will be the perception that the game is too hard for what you get. Since one of the major (some would argue the only) rewards you get in CoH is character development this could make matter worse instead of fix them.

The reality is the game released at one difficulty level. That difficulty level needs to be changed, but keep in mind the players fell in love with the game as it is today. Changes that only make the game harder may sour the relationship if not balanced with rewards.

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Well said Silentfury.
/e clap
I hope Statesman reads your post.
I wholeheartedly agree with you.

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Fellow heroes, disturbing information has come to light. Thanks to the hard work at the Federal Bureau of Super Powered Affairs and the Portal Corporation, we have discovered an odd energy signature throughout Paragon City. Researchers believe that this aetheric energy appears to be building towards a climax at some point in the near future. We believe that this will occur at some point over the next several days, but the authorities are not yet sure. All heroes should be on the look out for anything strange in the city. Be on guard; we have reason to believe that this bodes ill for our metropolis.

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Fiero Fuego reporting for duty.

Lone S.T.A.R. will be at the ready!

I remember seeing something about Inferno not being that great for raking in the xp. At first I agree...when Inferno isn't slotted...it is basically a deathtrap.

Once I got it slotted 3 dam 2 recharge it is actually pretty good....especially paired up with aim+bu. If I pop a rage insp I actually hit the cap with it and can take out groups of minions that are red or purple to me. Stamina get my end back quick enough so that by the time I find my next group, I'm ready with the breath/FB combo.

The big decision now is whether I will slot up the last slot with recharge or damage. I'm leaning towards recharge...but like the idea of being able to hit the cap without insps.

All I can say is.....
THANK YOU!

That totally made my night....that is hilarious!!

Very diplomatic Cambios.
Well done.
/e clap

A$$hat,

Teleport Friend, foe, and self = Pool 1
Hover = Pool 2
Hurdle, Health, and Stamina = Pool 3
You didn't list your 4th power pool.

You may be able to get a 5th pool now that the patch is out. I wouldn't know though I'm not 40+.

If you think the guide is crap...good...more mobs for me to burn in DA.

I gotta disagree with you too Arek...hasten = more aim+build up. Aim+build up+firebreath+fireball is the powerlevel combo. I rarely initiate combat without those. I only use fireblast on the remaining shamans (I haven't gotten blaze yet). Get hasten...it rocks...and once you get stamina....it's on!