Grey Pilgrim

Okay, look at it from the devs' point of view. If Hail of Bullets is indeed underperforming, why would they give +defense to it (which doesn't match up with any other blast set or how it works currently, something that they are unwilling to change much)? Why not just cut down the animation time, lower the recharge, or reduce the animation, etc.?

If you want to argue that it does not do enough on its own, go for it. But then state how to improve it by the numbers (again, damage done, KB chance, chance for random damage, recharge, etc.). Work with how sets are already set up and work, rather than throwing a dart at the wheel of "random buff that might work thematically."

I can wish all I want for Full Auto to make mobs cower in fear from the sheer amount of bullets being fired at them (even though that could make sense "thematically), but that doesn't mean it's going to be listened to, or adopted, by the devs. When Full Auto was buffed recently, it had its animation time reduced, for instance.

I can see the most traction happening from damage, recharge, or the extreme range of damage that it can do, personally. The animation is longish, but around what most of the nukes are. For balance, it just needs to be on par with what all those nukes can do (which is where the real debate comes in).

That's about all I would want added to the animations. The set is plenty visceral already: much of it coming from the effects you cause on mobs. Nothing like sending four guys flying with a Buckshot round (even better with the huge mobs we have in-game), and M80 is quite satisfying with how it sends enemies flying.

The sheer bullet spray of Full-Auto is awesome as well. *breaks out his Picard shooting a Tommy Gun face* About the only thing that could help any of those is a tracer round or two. Wonder how hard that would be to do now that BAB did the work with Dual Pistols?

Probably a lot, but I am curious.

Wait, so you never said Dual Blades is underpowered, but it was an anecdote that "most people have trouble having being intensely underpowered?" I think you can see why it sounds like you said Dual Blades is underpowered, as you pretty much said it again. For your specific case, I don't know if Energy Aura hit you harder in some respect, as DB isn't any more end heavy than other sets (it has lighter powers for the most part, but most of them animate faster than other sets, so it adds up to about the same thing).

I'd still say that HoB should just have a less extreme damage range, as it isn't consistent in what it does (and maybe a faster recharge). From posts on actual performance and what I have seen in game, it's a Nuke that needs another power to finish off most of a mob (RoA and Full Auto usually need another attack to even finish off minions... I usually follow up with Explosive Arrow and lead with M80 for those sets because of this). Solo, I'm thinking either leading in for HoB with Dual Wield or Bullet Rain would be a good idea, just to start knocking mobs back, then fire off HoB right away. That would help a bit.

But still, I'm not sure how using HoB is going to kill you any faster than using your other attacks... just set it up to use it right. I rather wonder if people have not yet figured out a solid strategy for using it well, actually. There was a video in open beta of a DP/Fire clearing Cimerora's walls, and they got in close with Hot Feet and fired off HoB while the mobs were running away slowly. That's another tactic that could work while solo beside what I noted up above.

When you're on a team, well, it's pretty much the same idea as any other PbAOE for those tactics.

For Dual Pistols builds with IO sets, I'd probably go for Smash/Melee defense, since you'll probably closer to mobs. I'd also say it's worth grabbing Hurdle and Combat Jumping, so you can get in close and leap out easily.

Maybe I would care if said DP Blasters did not run off on their own to die!

Heh, seriously, I think the only deaths we had were when a few ran off from the rest of their group. I think we had our first three when three of us went to lead a hostage out of the mission, and you other three continued on your own.

Anyway, it was a good run. I'm not sure why some people are being all down on DP's capabilities. The numbers are in line with other sets (even if some animations are long, etc.), and it's done great in the teams I've been on. We were mowing through guys in short order yesterday, and that was at low levels.

More of an addition. I was discussing when it lands a hit. It's still kind of annoying that an attacked mob (and his friends) can react to you while you are still animating the attack that alerts them to your presence. Same thing with misses on a snipe, etc.

For Executioner's Shot, it was discussed to death on the open beta forums. It's on par with Shout, but about a half second longer than most other similar attacks (Blaze is an outlier at 1 second, but you're not going to get DP on par with Fire anyway for balance reasons). If they could trim a half second off, I'd be a happy camper there, but it's still not that bad... and it does damage on par with those other short range, heavy blasts.

I'm still a little surprised that a few little rough things about DP were not fixed after the open beta, but they may be waiting a bit to see how it goes with the greater game-playing populace. I'm sure they'd rather release it a little weak and then buff it, rather than have it be overpowered and trim it back.

Hmmmm, well, they will react if you miss, unfortunately. If you do hit them, however, they shouldn't react. There are some annoying situations with this throughout the game, for instance. As a Stalker, mobs can react to your Assassin's Strike (or another attack) before it is done animating... I think this happens with regular attacks out of Hide as well. Attacking out of Hide has enough benefits to be okay even with this, but it's still annoying. Same for any blast power you use.

As for Dual Pistols in general, I'm not sure why there is so much beef with its performance. I would have liked to see Executioner's Shot have its animation reduced, and the extreme range of damage in Hail of Bullets be evened out, but it is otherwise a decent set by the numbers (performance, too, from what I've seen in game).

New sets do not need to be on top of the others in the same category, just on par. I don't see a whole lot about Dual Pistols that suggests it's not on par with the other sets. Just different, which is good. I don't want another fire set, or assault rifle. I want a new and fun set, and that is what we got.

*added*

Mutant, thanks for addressing that idea about Defiance. I responded to it in the General Feedback to DP in the open beta forum as well, as that was just... bad. "New" defiance is good and one of the better inherents in the game. No touchy!

If BAB saw this post, he'd facepalm and blow up the internet. Your examples all took a large amount of work, not a week from one employee.

They were working on powerset customization for over a year before we saw it, and that was not just BAB working, either. And they're not even done with it: people want it for pool powers and epics, too: those are on the maybe list, as far as I know.

Crossbows would certainly be a nice option, and maybe they'll add them in at some point (though they'd all have to be mechanical... superheroes don't want to have to stop and wind their crossbow for 30 secs to a minute between shots). But do NOT think that this is a little thing you are asking, or that it would take time from a lot of other things people would like in game.

The devs are constantly having to balance out what we want vs what they can do, and they will never, ever have enough time to do everything that we want.

I'd slot it up more if I could, but other powers were more important, unfortunately. I did have a few more slots for it on my offensive build for Grey Pilgrim, so I only did it on the defensive build because I had to. No matter what, Tanks are going to find plenty of times where they'll use that Tier 1 power, so it's worth slotting it and using it if you can.

That's the feeling for a lot of Tier 1 attacks for Tankers. They're usually going to be used and useful fairly often, though. I don't slot up Scorch too heavily on my Fire/Fire, for instance, but I still use it plenty, especially when I exemp down.

I would argue that you should reconsider Weaken a bit. That is actually a useful combo for when you get in over your head, and also makes it easier for a big chunk of foes to hit. Depending on your team, doing that may be more useful than Attack Vitals or Sweep, actually.

That's what I've been telling you (among others). Dual Blades is a great set for AOE, and its ST damage isn't bad, either. It's just spread out over a lot of orange numbers. The end result is still a lot of lieutenants and minions falling fairly quickly. Bosses do take longer, of course, but that's the way it goes. Roll with that, or elect to not have bosses and more foes to take on. That's the great thing with SSK, you can set things up how you want them.

Careful of your expectations. If you're swinging at seven mobs, you are probably going to miss one in a combo. That's not uncommon, or a big deal. The combos should land most of the time if you're slotting well for accuracy, though, and the aoe's make it easier to land combos (should only have to hit one mob with an aoe for it to count in the combo).

I do agree that the combos do a lot for Dual Blades, as they should. Weaken and Empower can be helpful for tanks, and Sweep and AV add to your damage and mitigation (nothing like knocking down a swath of enemies at once).

Other sets are going to have their strong points, of course. Don't expect Dual Blades to outdo them all. Overall, Dual Blades is much better than Energy Melee, though it is weaker for ST damage (I'll take that for the mass of AOE damage you can do). All the numbers I have seen the crunchers put out there make Dual Blades solidly in the pack with the other sets, and personal experience has confirmed that.

You really need to think through how you're slotting, though. Focus on more important powers first, and save slots on weaker powers until you have more important ones slotted. Putting a fourth slot in Stamina is useless until you're going to fill it, so wait until you get to that level range to put it in.

I don't know too much about Cloak of Darkness, but I would make do with fewer slots in there so you can get your attacks more slotted up, and the same with your other shields. Later on some of these lesser things like Nimble Slash and Cloak of Darkness can get slotted up, but they can wait. Prioritizing your slots is a good idea in any build.

If you want, you can take a look at the guide in my sig. Yes, it's for Fiery Aura, but I discuss enhancements in there, and some of the methodology I'm referring to is in there.

I wouldn't mind joining in, though I'd like to unlock Viridian to run it through, too. And man, why does Viridian require so much to unlock him? I remember looking this up before, and it's ridiculous. 200 tanks, 200 Paragon Protectors, 200 Sorcerors, and all of those are much more rare redside. Ugh.

Sure, you can hunt all those, but it's a silly requirement. I think that's the biggest thing I hate about redside: having to run mayhems to get just one contact unlocked. At least most of the other unlockable contacts aren't too onerous.

I deny thee! Get thee behind, Satan!

*ahem*

Anyone else? If nothing else, join us and save me from MG's evil ways!

This bodes poorly for what? An indicator of your patience?

Your not receiving a response yet does not mean that NCSoft is ignoring your or hates you, it just means that they haven't gotten to your petition yet. On a 2XP/Double Activation weekend with a big surge in people playing.

I'm not sure if the support team is working on the weekend, but their not responding to you immediately is not a bad thing. They do not have one support person for each player, just sitting at a desk, waiting for you to have a problem they can fix.

Seriously, just think about it. Do you think they do not want you to be able to play your Dual Pistols character (like many people are doing in game right now)? No. There is a reason they let you preorder for this weekend. So your success in this endeavor is important to them. They also have other customers besides you, and a budget for the game.

I'm not saying you should not expect a response, but expecting one NAO! is not particularly realistic or fair at this moment.