Grey Pilgrim

Do you mean he shouldn't rage and be upset "quite" now (as in just yet?), or that he shouldn't rage "quit?" Very different suggestions, there, Mr. Punner.

To the OP, you also should remember you are comparing quite different attacks. Haymaker and Crane Kick do quite different ST damage scales (Haymaker is 1.64, Crane Kick is 2.058)... Haymaker would be weaker than Crane Kick by a significant amount on Scrappers as well... if Scrappers ever get Super Strength, anyway.

Whenever you compare things, know how those things are made up. Super Strength is actually considered to be a fairly good set.

It depends on the proc and the power. For damage procs, you have to activate the power and it has to hit. Gaussian's, if it's a click (like Build up), it will have a chance to fire on activation, while a toggle will have the chance to fire every... gah, can't remember how often it is in toggles. Fairly often. However, it can be better to put it in in a click power, as then it is firing when you will want the damage (when you use Build up, etc.). In a Toggle, it may go off when you are between mobs, etc. You just don't know.

Sparky is better to me just because it doesn't take 7 seconds to summon. I dropped him from my Elec/Elec/Elec Blaster when I kept forgetting to summon him (so he was doing absolutely nothing at all, rather than a little). Long summons are just meh for me with pets, especially in Devices which has long animations for a lot of stuff. I like the set, it just needs some help.

But yes, as you said, Sparky has issues as well.

Good to know he does different stuff. Guess we're just unlucky that he always does the same one whenever we happen to find his stage. He is pretty funny, too, just from his interactions with his audience before the show (which don't seem scripted... and he always adjusts his story to people he interacts with).

I am quite disappointed you have left the motherland for... Arizona, though. Traitor!

Yeah, I like them too, except for the mutant cape. As you noted, though, $10 seems steep. $5-$6 would have made me think "eh, not too bad for what it is." At that price range, most of the other boosters are much, much better. You might not get them for their theme (like magic, valkyrie, or ninja), but they're offering a lot more for that $10 than what this pack gets you.

No, there was some article or diary or something a few weeks ago where they mentioned your origin was going to have more of an impact on your gameplay. I think it's going to be tied in with dialogue in some new arcs (more than just Percy Winkley's) from what they said, but the language of this announcement was similar enough to make me fear they were equating the two things, which I certainly would not.

I do know the costume pieces are for every character at level 1, which Black Pebble or Ocho confirmed. So that's good. Just don't think the price point is right for what this is offering. I'd go with Ham and say any of the boosters are iffy at $10, but since that's our baseline and what this booster is up against, I would certainly say it's not worth it.

Shame, too. Some of those auras look nifty, as do the capes. Just not that much money good. But you know me, I'm one of those that has to justify subbing to the game: some people take that as a matter of course.

I like costumes too, and have a large variety of them. You can do a lot more with the Tech, Magic, or Ninja booster packs then you can with a few capes and auras, though. No way is this booster even close to those.

And if this is what that promo material a few weeks ago meant by "having your origin tied in more with your character's growth," color me unimpressed.

Mwahaha! I am the doom police with this one! Fear me and tremble!

Wait, what? I wasn't admitting to being hyperbolic at all. If you don't think 30 feet is pretty close range in this game, that's where the problem comes in to play, as that is quite close (so ignore all the annoyed tones we've been throwing at each other). Are there times where teammates are in that close? Sure. But there are plenty more times where teammates aren't that close, and it's quite easy to do. As I said in the earlier post, you can be working with your team on the same spawn and be out of range of this 30 foot power.

That's where the other disagreement comes into play. I do see it as a necessary feature. I don't know why Castle would make that adjustment to Stalker's Critical capability and not want it to work on teams. It doesn't work solo, obviously (unless pets truly do affect the ability... not sure if that has been proven definitively, though), so that's where it needs to work.

And if it doesn't work easily or consistently on a team (which I don't think it does at 30 feet), that's an issue. Otherwise, Stalkers can have a lower base damage than Stalkers, lower HP, lower mitigation, lower AOE, and even a lower critical chance (depending on the target, and it can definitely be lower on the targets that matter most). I am aware that maybe they shouldn't dial this up too far (otherwise you'll have Stalkers using the power clear across the zone or the map from their team), but asking for 60-90 feet is a good idea and would help.

You're Alvery? But... you're Masque! So confused.

Trimmed down to what I wanted to focus on. This was a point I made in that other thread as well. The main thing Another Fan and others did is to point out other powerset combos that were perhaps doing too much damage, not that Blasters are underperforming.

Other than Devices, I'm trying to think if there are any other Blaster sets that really need tweaking. I think it still does, but the rest do what they're supposed to do pretty well, as far as I know. I haven't played all of them, and have to go off of what people say (and the numbers) for other sets.

But yes, improving Blasters as a whole would be... making the game REALLY easy. And we're already kind of in that territory (I'm hoping the new endgame stuff is challenging but not too difficult, though).

I don't know if I quite disagree that sometimes a sledgehammer is used when making adjustments, but most of those examples that hold water are from a long time ago. Castle seems quite concerned about adjusting things right when he does them (note the tested changes to Shield Charge, compared to what is now live: it was not reduced as much as was first tested).

That behavior is a far cry from ED (though arguably the game needed it), or even the nerfs to Burn way back when (it needed a reduction, but not to the point where it had limited usefulness). I'm not sure why Bruising for Tanks was brought up, as that adjustment was to help an AT as a whole. Super Strength and Stone are good sets for damage, sure, but there's nothing so strong about them to warrant them not getting the power (and it's not like those sets wouldn't do more damage for Brutes or Scrappers, either, and Bruising is meant to make Tankers a more viable AT to choose among the melee classes).

Helping all Defenders solo better was hardly questionable, either.

Meh, leave it alone. I debated whether I should state the above, but I thought it might help clarify things here. That other thread is beaten to death, though, and no need to rehash things we've all said already.

The main issue here was when someone honestly thinking about Blasters was led astray by incorrect information. Covered that well enough up above.

Hey! That tocal lorysteller performs at our Renaissance Festival in the Twin Cities (Minnesota)! He's why my wife often calls me a "mudly stuffin." Heh, we saw him for the first time on one of our first dates. I've only ever heard him perform "Jomeo and Ruliet," though. I know he can't do, ummm, a Tale of Two Cities, but it would be fun to hear him do another story.

Oh, Devices is what this thread is about? Ummm, yeah... Devices could use some help so it's more usable on teams. Gun Drone being movable helps, of course, but it still takes way too long to summon. Time Bomb needs work for the same reason. Being able to place a trip mine in combat would be good, too. You could still keep the animation longish, but removing the interrupt could make it interesting to use or decent for when things hit the fan, like cal trops.

Not sure if I'd want higher recharge to make that not too overpowered, but I kind of like it.