Fixit

wow you ******** are still here, i love you guys! i remember killing you guys all the time with the most epic pvp toons in the world....Burned, Bionic Intoxication, Phantom Saint, Artemis Cloud, etc. if you dont know you better ask someone.

Hehe, thanks! Just wanted to give folks an idea of Wake's personality. She's really a fun character both to play and RP. I may do more blurbs like this if they're well-received.

"Over here, Toy!" The seven-year-old squealed as he leapt the slushy puddles on his way to yet another shop's window display. Tohya smiled. Jack's little boy really was adorable, even if he couldn't pronounce her name right.

"Yeah, come on 'Toy'." Jack snickered, hunkered down in his coat against the chilly wind. The day was bright enough to be warm if you stayed in the sunlight and holiday shopping was just the thing to fill time.

Tohya jammed her pointy finger into Jack's coat-padded arm. "You don't get to call me that, Jackie." The taunt in her voice couldn't be mistaken.

"Whatever you say, Toy." Jack grinned, keeping his eye on the boy carousing from window to window on the line of shops.

Tohya muttered something and drained all the kinetic energy out of Jack's shoes, causing his foot to plop right out of one and into the messy wetness this morning's snowstorm had left on the sidewalk. He cursed roundly, but quickly stifled it when a giggling Tohya pointed sternly at the boykin toddling around in front of them.

"Why do I hang out with you again?" Jack muttered as he put a sopping foot back into his shoe and made a face. "Now I'm going to be soggy for the rest of the afternoon!"

She latched onto his arm with the most disarming smile she could muster, the girly pigtails she'd done up in her hair that morning swinging in the wind. "Because I'm cute! And because I don't put up with your sh... "

"HALT!" A mechanical voice interrupted from behind. Jack froze in place, Tohya just sighed heavily and spun to face the PPD hardsuit that had swooped down after them, no doubt on the track of an energy signal generated from her prank.

"Wake of Ashes, you are under... aarreeeeesssssssssst.... " The mech-enhanced officer slowed, seemingly swimming in invisible molasses, until his movement halted entirely. Tohya's eyes glowed ever-so-slightly turquoise as she finished transferring all the momentum from the peacekeeper's body to the sidewalk underneath it. The previously wet pavement dried and steamed from the sudden transfer of energy.

"Couldn't resist, could you?" Jack gave her a funny look, frustration mixed with amusement.

Tohya just shrugged, her eyes downcast, her posture crestfallen. "I can't help who I am. I'm just lucky you like me for everything I am." Her gaze rose just a bit, checking Jack's face. "You do, don't you?"

He stepped forward and kissed her forehead lightly. "Yeah, I still like you, though I wish you could come visit more often and didn't have to leave so suddenly all the time."

Toyha wiggled just a little and cast a glance back to the frozen officer. People were starting to stop and look now, she sighed again. "Even if you do just as much good as bad, they never forget the bad." She fussed with Jack's coat lapel, reluctant to actually leave, though the officer started moving minutely once again. She sniffed once, then in a blink, was gone.

"Toy! Toy come see!" Jack's son rushed back to show the funny lady something that had excited him about one of the displays, only to find everyone staring at a queer moving statue. He slowly reached up for his daddy's hand while he and the gathering crowd watched the officer reanimate.

".. and must cease.. and... desist...?" The suit-encased man stumbled as time seemed to skip around him. Everyone was staring, his quarry didn't even register on the instruments. He snorted, "move along folks, sorry to disturb your shopping. Happy Holidays!"

Jack shook his head and plucked his boy up, setting him on his shoulders. They had some shopping to do.

I'm still also very concerned about the +stealth IOs stacking for everyone. Until now, only Stalkers were able to stack stealth in PvP. Now it seems anyone can. I think it's going to severely imbalance the PvP game, especially at lower levels.

[ QUOTE ]
My only beef with your guide is the recommendation that Sleet be slotted with three damage. This is so wrong it hurts my eyes just to see it. A better way to slot it might be 3 recharge, 2 Debuff and 1 Acc. This is a debuffing power, not a damage dealing one. Play to its strengths.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually Sleet does almost the exact same damage that Tenebruos Tentacles does. There's really no reason *not* to slot it for damage unless you're hurting for enhancements elsewhere in your build. You have enough -def in the /Cold set as it is.

Well, you thank the Tanks that must have a role on a team for that. And you can thank the devs right now that their role is currently borked until the patch on test makes it to live. 'cause yanno, Blasters aren't heroes unless someone else is helping them.

A while ago they also made a change to the mob AI so it would assess the 'threat' of each team member and react accordingly. Doing damage or debuffing moves you further up the 'threat' list. Generally I've found that it's based on max HP, the mobs will focus on those with the fewest first. If I'm not senile I remember a redname posting that they changed it to be just like we would do, take out the squishiest first to neutralize the threat, then work on that which would take longest to take down.

So, one person attacks, the entire team is put on the agro table, then the entire team gets prioritized by their threat level and generally the squishies get attacked first unless something else creates more hate. With tanker's taunt rules being broken right now, it's pretty blatant.

Late to the party as usual... but let me present my take anyway.

I wouldn't really expect to see the 20' attacks being boosted to more than 40'. Why? Because of range enhancements. As things are now, slotting a range SO into the short range blasts returns very little, a whopping 4' per. Blaze with 3 range SOs is still only 32', which is still practically melee. Now, make those same blasts 40' and you're already at a fair distance, but now each range SO gives you 8' extensions. A 40' base blast with 3 range SOs makes 64', which is some significant range. And that's not even getting into Boost Range. I'd be happy with even 40'.

Fire is getting the changes it needs first because they're something simple that can be done right away, such as Flares' animation being swapped (I still hope for BiB's animation). It's not a matter of needing it, it's a matter of getting it done and over with so hereforth they can say "well, Fire's done, let's work on something else". Like Castle said, he can put through tweaks fairly easily, but power replacements and alterations require much more work and balancing thought.

Some suggestions for other upcoming quickie changes:

-Explosive Blast's damage is extremely low for how late in the game it comes. Any chances of getting it upped?
-Voltaic Sentinal could use Ball Lighting as an attack.
-Make Smoke Grenade a placable power like Trip Mine or Caltrops so it doesn't break CD's stealth.

Pretty sure Arcana = her. And she usually knows what she's talking about.

An anecdotal comparison for you.

Regularly, there are several /Device blasters hanging around in the PvP zones on Champion waiting to teleport unwary villians into their pile-o-mines'n'caltrops. Being that I can see them (yay Focused Senses!) I regularly make it a habit to ruin their plans. Landing outside their zone of influence, I pop an orange and trade ranged attacks with them, my Focus vs. their whole primary. Regularly, between the high damage quick recharge nature of Focus, controlled criticals, and their unwillingness to move from their safe zone, I am usually the winner of these blast contests. Granted I have a secondary that lends itself to protection and a smidgen more HP, but something tells me I shouldn't be able to outblast a Blaster, of any sort.

I have played both extensively. I prefer Focus. It animates faster. It recharges faster. It actually does the exact same damage only without the DoT. Some other little-known facts about this debate here...

Focus actually activates significantly faster than Impale, and by activating I mean the time between the click of the power and the damage being assigned. This is very significant as you can use it after an AS as a follow up and actually hit before healing can occur, whereas with Impale you're looking at several seconds of delay before damage is assigned. Anyone who stalks knows what a benefit this can be.

Focus out of the box can be activated, recharge, and activated again within the period of Build-Up. With recharge reductions, it becomes a machinegun.

Focus + Air Superiority is perma-KD on anything non-resistant. While this doesn't mean a great deal in PvP, it means loads in PvE. Effectively, you can juggle mobs, even high-level bosses, to death. This makes leveling a cinch and much faster than with anything Spines. Since I have both and use both, getting a flyer to the ground isn't much of an issue either. Air Sup does the same damage as Strike, but is smashing, so can also help out a lot against things that heavily resist Lethal (robots in particular).

I like Spines, don't get me wrong. But my favorite Stalker lives on the knife edge and every microsecond is precious. Compared to the speed and grace of Claws, Spines seems clunky and slow. It's like the difference between driving a tank and a Porsche. Sure, the tank will do more damage, but the Porsche is much more fun to drive.

Due to popular request, I present the Cold, Dark Night- a Dark/Cold Corruptor guide

Dislcaimer- This little known build has become my favorite character. A lot of what is to follow is based on my observations and experiences, it is meant as a basis of recommendation and information to those wanting to know about the experiences of a player. This guide is subject to editing and is a work in progress, I will leave notes as I learn more.

Dark Blast and Cold Domination, a match seemingly made in heaven. These two sets synergize so well I wonder if they weren't made for one another. There's no self-heal in /Cold, but Dark/ gets one. There's no Aim in Dark/, but /Cold gets a massive defense debuff as the very first power. Dark/ debuffs accuracy and /Cold increases defense. In this build you have access to the following status effects: foe (-resist, -defense, -acc, -recharge, -regen, -endurance, -recovery, -speed, -damage), ally (+def, +HP, +res including psi and slow, +recovery, +endurance). This is in addition to fast animating damage. Nice eh?

The other good thing about this combination is that it's a jack of all trades. You can be team support, you can be AoE, you can go single-target, you can be a debuffer, or you can do all of the above. It's very versitile and will fit in any niche.

Let's break it down.

Dark Blast- This is your bread and butter attack. It has decent damage, very fast animation and recharge and fills in the chain nicely. Just like Ice Bolt only with -acc instead of slow. Suggested slotting: 1ACC, 3DMG

Gloom- A very underestimated attack and one you should always take and use liberally. High damage, the highest available for a tier-2 attack, but done as a DoT. Animates fast, recharges okay. Suggested slotting: 1ACC, 3DMG, 2RechRed

Moonbeam- The snipe of the set. If you like snipes, this is a good one as it comes in time to deliver some high damage at early levels. Because of the -ACC inherant in Dark Blast and slows in /Cold, you can usually get this one off mid-combat without interruption. This is the only attack in the set with a superior damage rating. I took it and use it occasionally on anything with more HPs than a lieutenant, as it does an appreciable chunk of their life off and Scourges very, very well. Suggested slotting: 1ACC, 3DMG, 1EndRed. You probably won't be using it enough to justify more slots as your regular attacks recharge so quickly.

Dark Pit- This is a "meh" power. In PvE, it's largely useless because the base duration is so low and recharge is so high and the accuracy is attrocious, and it will instantly aggro everything. It requires six slots to be functional at all. What it is good for is in PvP, blasting through Acrobatics and giving you a break from MMs. Suggested slotting: 2ACC, 3DisDir, 1RechRed

Tenebrous Tentacles (henceforth referred to as TT)- This is a signiture Dark Blast power. It is a Swiss army knife. It does decent damage, has an AoE immobilize, is a good AoE debuff, and recharges as it expires. You should pick this up as soon as it becomes available and use it in every fight. As a Corruptor, you get no melee unless you delve into power pool attacks. Being able to keep everything at range and debuffed is a game-changing experience. Suggested slotting: 2ACC, 2DMG, 1RechRed, 1EndRed

Night Fall- The compliment to TT, a high-damage cone attack and the best accuracy debuff in the set aside from Blackstar. Line up your TT, then step back some and let this rip. The sweep is much narrower on NF than TT, but the range is deeper, hence the stepping back. It's somewhat annoying to have to switch ranges to use the two together, but the end result is a lot of orange numbers and mobs unable to hit you. Suggested slotting: 1ACC, 3DMG, 1RechRed, 1EndRed

Torrent- I don't know why this power is even in here. I suppose if you want to send things flying and scatter them widdershins, messing up your cones, then you can take it. The damage is pitiful, it won't do much of anything to mobs caught up in TT, it costs a lot and recharges longer than any attack in the set outside the nuke. Pass.

Life Drain- The other set-defining power of Dark Blast. This is a ranged self-heal, damage and debuff. If you opt for few attacks, this can fill in your single-target blast chain as a damage dealer. Otherwise, just pop it off every now and then to keep your green bar high and stack another debuff on your target. Suggested slotting: 1ACC, 3Heal, 1RechRed, 1EndRed

Blackstar- As nukes go, this one is unimpressive, both visually and functionally. The only thing worth mentioning on this thing is that the accuracy debuff is huge. I took it for a while as an "[censored] we're in trouble" power, but in a set where you have so much to offer when you have endurance, the crash on this one isn't worth the power. Pass.

Infrigidate- You don't have a choice on this one, but what a nice power to be stuck with! This is the sole reason you can get away with only one accuracy in most of the rest of your build. This should be the first thing you fire off in any encounter on the most dangerous target in the bunch, then anything else you want to hit, will. Not to mention the slow and -recharge on this are hovering quite close to the caps. This is step 1 to utterly messing up your target. Hit anything using fire attacks with this and forget about them (Longbow Flamethrowers, I'm looking at you ). Suggested slotting: 3ACC, 1DefDeBuff, 1RechRed, 1EndRed

Ice Shield- Step 1 to protecting your team. The defense on this is close to the base shield on an SR Scrapper! Add to that some fire and cold damage resist and you have one heckuva power. In issue 7, they added positional defense to this so it stacks with all other types of defenses. If you team at all, take it. In PvP, the resist on this shines as there are so many ice-slinging Corruptors and Blasters out there. Suggested slotting: for PvE, 3DefBuff. For PvP, 3DefBuff, 2DamRes

Snowstorm- This is a signature power for the /Cold set, but I recommend skipping it as a Dark/Cold. You already get an AoE control power in TT, the only reason to take it would be the AoE -recharge. But it's a bit endurance heavy for that, when you'll already be fighting for breath because of the machinegun nature of your primary. You already also have the selfsame debuffs in a single-target hit with Infrigidate. Pass.

Glacial Shield- Step #2 for protecting your team. Same thing as the Ice Shield.

Frostwork- The only external HP buff in the game. I can't say how much this power helps Brutes, MMs, heck, anyone who's on the front lines. Give it to a regen or invuln who already has DP and watch them tank the map. Just don't try to keep it on the whole team, it recharges long enough that you want to pick two at most and just keep it going. Even with three recharge reducers, you're at 3 targets max, and it's maddening enough keeping shields on everyone. Suggested slotting: 3Heal

Arctic Fog- This is one you can put off until later or drop if you're hurting for power slots, but is still a good pick. Self damage resist and stealth is nice, 20% damage resistance to fire/cold/energy for the team is even better. For PvP, this thing packs slow resist, again a good way to thwart those ice-slingers. Together with the ice shields you're talking 40% cold resist. Suggested slotting: 2EndRed, 3DamRes

Benumb- The regen-killer. This is what makes it really possible to utterly mess up your target no matter what it is. Paired with Infrig, you've effectively killed everything about your target. No regen, no endurance recovery, halved resist to status effects, halved damage, halved defense, I mean really, stacked with all the debuffs from Dark and about now they're wondering why they bother fighting. For 30 seconds they are gimped beyond belief. Kill them fast. Suggested slotting: 2ACC, 3RechRed, 1EndRed

Sleet- Here is the fun part; with TT you get to keep everyone in Sleet for the duration, so it becomes a very nice damage dealer. It's also a massive debuff, so everything you're doing becomes better. Pick it up ASAP. Suggested slotting: 3DMG, 2RechRed, 1EndRed

Heat Loss- This is like a hybrid between Transferrance and Recovery Aura coupled with a huge defense and resistance debuff. This is step 3 to utterly messing up your target. It does it all, buffs the team, debuffs the target, and makes life easy. Definitely a keeper. It just recharges soooo bleeeeeding sloooooow. Suggested slotting: 3RechRed, EndMod to taste and availability

Pool Powers- Stamina is pretty much a necessity. You're firing off fairly expensive attacks and debuffs so rapidy that you'll eat through your blue bar very quickly. Heat Loss will not save you. Slot almost everything for EndRed and it'll help some, but not all. I went Leaping for travel and mez protection. You get Medicine and Concealment built in to your build, but might want Invis if you're PvPing to drop toggle debuffs. Everything recharges so fast that I find Hasten unnecessary. Outside of that, the build is so good I find myself neglecting the pools because I like so much of my power sets.

PPP- I refrain from offering advice on this because everyone is different. Whatever your taste, you'll probably want a hold, because your powers don't offer you any. Luckily all of them come with one. I took Mu for Power Sink both as a way to recover endurance for my hungry build and to drain in combination with Heat Loss.

Origin Powers- This is a valid concern because Infrigidate makes the origin power hit reliably. I find that either the -res debuff from Magic or the sleep from Science fill in very nicely. The sleep is most effective as it does last a bit as long as you leave the guy out of the TT chain and you don't have any other way of knocking a person out of the fight until PPPs. People get upset when I knock off Acro with it. The -res on the Magic origin power will kick in mid-DoT, so can be used any time to increase the amount of damage the target is taking, most effective with DoT builds.

Play Tactics

Early on, you'll want to focus on single-target attacking, always leading off with Infrigidate. Infrig/DB/Gloom and you're set up for a Moonbeam because your target can't reach you, they're doing the running man, and they can't hit you, they've got debuffs on. Shield to taste on whatever team you're on, if any. The first 15 levels are fairly self-explainatory. Slot up multiple accuracies until you get SOs, especially in Infrig. Remember that what makes this combo shine is both debuff and damage, so don't spare the debuff in your haste to destroy.

Once you can pick up TT and NF then you've got the beginning of an AoE build with DB and Gloom to clean up. Then you can start leading off with TT to immediatly debuff the whole group, then Infrig your target. I find at this point it's generally worthless to try and Infrig a minion, anything above that will do. Watch aggro on teams, TT will draw a lot for you. Personally, I waited until 30 to pick up NF to go with Sleet as I found my single-target and buff game to be more than adequate to fill my time, though I got TT as soon as it was available and used it the whole time for safe blasting. A note on bosses; Benumb one before dropping TT and it will be caught in the effect just like everything else.

Then you find yourself with Stamina and can start shifting to a machinegun attack style. Remember that the more attacks you field, the more debuffs you're stacking on your target and the less they'll be able to hit back. Death by a thousand paper cuts! The numbers will be small, but there will be a whole lot of them. A note on Scourge; all Dark Blast attacks Scourge. It's not always readily apparent on TT and NF because you only get the "SCOURGE" message on the initial hit. If you focus, you'll see that there are two numbers instead of one, but it's hard to notice when there's so many numbers floating away. Rest assured that you *are* getting the Scourge benefit. A favorite of mine is TT/Infrig/DB/Gloom/TT/Apprentice Charm/DB/Gloom. Very nice damage.

Your big debuffs start coming at about the same time you start seeing a lot of big enemies. I did the first respec at 28 and we made the Thorn Tree cry with all the debuffs this build brought along. Sleet will change your tactics again, because you'll want to start focusing more on your AoE as it becomes safer. You'll be tempted by Heat Loss to go crazy with your endurance and drop the EndRed slotting and maybe even Stamina, don't do it! It's nice, but it's not up all the time.

Team play is even better with this build because at the same time you're boosting your team's defense, you're dropping the enemies' accuracy. This leads to a very noticable difference in the green bars, even PUGs generally take note. If you team a lot, be sure to take all the team buffs (IS/GS/FW/AF) as together they make a nice addition. The debuffs from /Cold make bosses/EBs/AVs/GMs short work for a team. Try to avoid using AoEs on a team, even TT, unless there's a good aggro magnet around, which usually means a Brute with a PBAoE damage aura. TT is very nice, however, when brought around with another Corr that has a rain power, or a Fire Brute. Used discriminately it can be a very powerful tool.

PvP Tactics

PvP is only somewhat different for this build. In team play, Arctic Fog becomes more a personal tool, and the shields' resistance comes into full play. Night Fall is only marginally useful, you'll want Life Drain to be up more often and Dark Pit becomes useful. TT becomes more of an attack than an immob, though it does a good job of making people switch from SJ to CJ, which puts your team at a travel advantage. If all you plan to do is zone PvP, you can probably use your PvE build.

Arena PvP will force a respec. You'll want Hasten here to get your long recharge timers on Benumb and Heat Loss down to more managable levels. The timing of the debuffs is crucial. Watch out for Aim, it will cancel whatever -ACC you've got going. Use Dark Pit liberally against squishies, followed up by your ST hold. Invis is useful against /Rad users, drop the toggles and then hit them with all the -recharge you have to prevent them from getting their most powerful tools back up. Sleet is good for revealing Stalkers and making MMs have trouble, plus works as an area denial tool if dropped at your feet against melee types. You will destroy Scrappers, especially Regens, if you can keep out of range while Build-Up is active. Slot Hurdle and CJ and you'll have some pretty good movement advantages over your slowed opponent. A pet helps too! People like to complain that DoT isn't optimal in PvP, but with -recharge and -regen in /Cold, I find DoT is just as good and has the added benefit of making Aid Self nearly impossible to use.

All in all, Dark/Cold has been a very enjoyable experience for me. Hopefully it will be for you too!

Okay, I'll bite. I spend a lot of time in SC here.

Here on Champion:

QuickPrick Spines/SR Scrapper
Minx in Boots Claws/SR Stalker
Iceworks AR/Cold Corruptor
Rouge Particle Rad/Kin Corruptor
Tarry Ice/Sonic Corruptor

[ QUOTE ]
[Actually, Agile(the range passive, for those playing along at home) is available long before Focused Senses(the range toggle).

[/ QUOTE ]

Focused Senses is tier 2, Agile is tier 3.

Lucky is the only passive that comes before the toggle. Peronally, I'd rather actually have it that way since the resists are much better than the acutal defense, and I don't even take Evasion because Elude covers it fairly well.

I'd acutally considered getting the passives slotted up when I heard they were going to be at 7.5% as then the slots would actually be worth more than 1%, but as it is, I have better things to slot for, like friggin' slow or something. Anything else, really.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
In answer to the OP: yes, I would feel better if scrappers were clearly superior to blasters in melee. From a purely balance perspective, blasters should never have an advantage, no matter how short term, over a scrapper, tanker, or brute, in melee range.

[/ QUOTE ] Actually, from a purely balance perspective, it kinda makes sense. Risk vs. reward and all that, blasters risk more going into melee and get a bit of a better reward for doing so.

Now on a personal level, I'd perfer it if blasters didn't do as much damage as a scrapper in melee, but outdamaged scrappers in melee from range. Of course, that'd likely break the game, so it's not going to happen.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT.

When Blasters can do scrapper's melee-level damage from real range (not that 20' BS), which is their defined role, then I'd be all for reducing their melee damage capability.

However, since range is the greatest defense one can possibly have against melee sets which are completely incapable of retaliating at all, I doubt that will ever happen.

A suggestion, simple and realistic.

Make Burn's DoT stick to the foe (a-la flamethrower). Anyone who enters the burn patch is set on fire for a short duration. Damage levels and duration can be set at a level that is fair, but the fear effect can still stay in place to aid realism. The damage is done regardless of the villians running willy-nilly around the map and everyone is happy.

I think you're still taking me the wrong way. Is the blaster damage cap an issue? Sure, I'll concede we could all use as much damage as possible. But is it the single biggest punch that everyone should be touting as the solution to everything? No! All I want is people to start looking at more than damage cap, because damage cap is not the answer we're looking for. I'd really, really hate to see blasters get the reworking that we've been promised only to find that the solution was only a damage cap increase, when that's really only a small part of what we need.

[ QUOTE ]
Thats where you're wrong. Build up is in almost every secondary (not just energy). Assault, while rarely taken by blasters, IS a common power among controllers and defenders, since they get a bigger buff from it.Almost every defender primary/controller secondary has some kind of teammate buff, (I think FF and Dark are the only ones that dont) You know...the teammates that supposedly want you on the team for your damage potential. Wasted potential, since they cant help most blasters damage-wise.

[/ QUOTE ]

You read me wrong there. I was already taking Build Up into account for the damage cap for every blaster (that uses all six slots for damage, again, not everyone has Tactics or Targetting Drone and generally uses at least one +ACC). Energy is the only set that has Boost Range. And as for Defender/Controller buffs, there are only those three: Fortitude, Accelerate Metabolism, and Siphon Power. So again, you're left with only six situations where the damage cap is breachable, most of which come at higher levels and half of which depend on having that def/troll in your team.

[ QUOTE ]
We're talking about team situations here, by the way...late game team situations, specifically, where all of the weakness of blasters are most glaringly obvious. Finding oneself in a situation where you could very easily hit a 500% cap is not at all rare...it's nearly an every fight (in a team) occurance for 4 of the 5 blaster secondaries.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm still failing to see how this is such a common situation, please provide some exampels so I can better understand. In a team with Assault you'd break the cap by maybe 30% (again assuming BU and 6 SOs). Maybe I'm playing with the wrong people, but I've come across few that use Assault fully slotted anyhow. Fortitude usually goes to the tank in a group. Accelerate Metabolism and Siphon Power are minor buffs. Honestly, you'd have to have a complete 8-man team made specifically to hit every single damage buff there is specifically focused on you to make it that great of a concern for 500% to be a significant figure.

[ QUOTE ]
As far as the AT's base damage being the same...wrong again. Scrappers and blasters base is pretty much equal. Defenders do 33% less than blasters. Tanks do 20% less than scrappers. I'm not sure where controllers fall, but again, their base is less than blasters.

[/ QUOTE ]

Again you read me wrong. I said "nearly" the same. Scaling, we've done more damage historically because we slot further, sooner. But as soon as the fire tank gets Burn at 18, that's right out the window. Then you start getting the three enhacement slots in the 30s and the scrappers are as slotted as we are. So there's where the problem lies, not in the cap, but in the base.

I'm still convinced that a cap change wouldn't affect even three quarters of the blaster builds out there. It just seems that those that even know about it are building it up to be more than it is and disturbing those that don't know the hard numbers behind it and getting the community unnecessarily riled up about a phantom, when the real problem could use more attention.

[ QUOTE ]
Don't for get Red Insperations ... Its very frustrating to be able to self-buff yourself past a cap, but not be able to benifit from it, and have other people throw a buff on you or hand you a big nice juicy Red Insperation and then have to turn around and say "I appreciate the thought but your really wasting your time, go buff some other AT that can use it, like a scrapper."

[/ QUOTE ]

BTW, it seems that inspirations break the damage cap. Here's some figures for you.

Level 36 AR blaster

Weapon: Sniper Rifle, six-slotted 35++ DMG, plus Build-Up.
Target: Level 18 Tsoo minion (Crane Enforcer)

First shot, theoretically at 400% damage cap, 1432.13

Second shot, theoretically at 400%, plus a 25% Rage inspiration, 1508.23.

This experiment leads me to believe that this isn't capped where people say it is.

[ QUOTE ]
HO's, Aim, Assault, and (Almost all) Defender powers will raise your damage from 400%......to 400%.


[/ QUOTE ]

My point is that the vast majority of blasters will never reach that damage cap, let alone have any real reason to need to exceed it, so why make such a huge deal about it?

You have one ENE secondary, one uncommonly taken pool power, something you only get at level 47+, and a conditional teammate that can actually put you over the cap as it's been set. Explain to me how this helps those blasters who have anything other than ENE secondary, aren't interested in the Leadership pool, are too low a level to raid Hammi, and won't have a defender nearby with Siphon Power/Accelerate Metabolism/Fortitide. In a nutshell, you have six whole rare conditional events that could possibly get you above that cap, and that's assuming you already have all your attacks six-slotted with damage, yet a lot of people are taking this as the end-all, be-all of blaster damage solutions. It isn't. It would benefit a very small minority of situations.

The issue isn't a factual one at all, more like a complete "no fair, we're supposed to be able to claim that we're this cool and can't," when the practical application isn't anywhere near that dire.

I'll reiterate, the cap is *not* the problem here.

The biggest problem here is that while blasters are supposed to have the damage top title, every AT's base attack is about the same. This makes it so that at higher levels, every AT can acheive the same damage potential. We just slot our attacks sooner. However, while all AT attack base is the same, each AT has their other attributes that greatly outweigh what the Blaster has. Tanks get obsecene DEF, yet not a whole lot of attack abilities. Controllers and defenders get buffs, de-buffs, pets and healing. Scrappers get high DEF and more DEF powers in their secondaries. Blasters, we get range. Yay range. The laments of range as a benefit are already well covered in these forums.

See, the problem is not in damage at all, because it's unlikey that one AT will ever be scaled vastly differently from the others for the problem that everyone will cry "unfair". However, our secondary attribute simply does not stack well with the usefulness of others.

Anyway, back to the original point. Yes, the damage cap is there. So what? Until the majority of situations make that cap an actual inhibition to anyone outside of a few more vocal 50-level folks with too many Hammi raids under their belts, I'm not too concerned about it. If we get a boost to our damage ability in anything more than a rare coincedence, then yeah, I'd be a lot more supportive of the argument.

Who's for Blaster Build-up getting 200%!

I brought this up in a post of my own to get some confirmation, but I think it could be said here too.

Fully slotted with DMG SOs + Build Up= 400%

So the only things outside this that could ever even break that cap are HOs, Aim, Assault, and having a Kinetics troll/def on the team.

In essence, boosting the blaster damage cap would benefit maybe 5% of the total game experience. So let's drop that principal debate please and focus on something that will actually do something constructive for us all.