Grey Pilgrim

You're sidestepping all my questions! I'd say that's unreasonable entirely, unless you said you would be done at a certain time and then jumped on a TF that would take longer than that.

I dunno. Sometimes relationships just don't work out when someone can't understand the other person's hobbies. People can get upset over someone's hobby, no matter what it is. Games aren't the only case. It sounds like you ran into someone that wasn't willing to work with your interest no matter what.

At least I'm assuming you were reasonable on your side and weren't gaming 24/7.

I'm playing a Dual Pistols/Energy Blaster at the same time as an Energy/Energy Blaster. I have an E^3 Blaster, and AR/EM, and an Arch/Dev, all at 50. For the weapon users, I don't notice the redraw much as I follow what I said above: use things in chains. Redraw is all of a second and not that big a deal. I'll love it when BAB finds a way to get rid of it (I was under the impression he thought he found a solution, but then found some way that it did not work).

Still, it doesn't make or break a character. If it did, there wouldn't be Scrapper champions running around with Broadsword/Regens, which I guarantee you has to redraw more than any Blaster really does.

Archery had its animations reduced mainly to remove the redraw time that was a part of every weapon animation until about I10-I11, when BAB started removing them. Dual Pistols, like Dual Blades, is nice and smooth because it never had to deal with that design issue.

HoB received a complete unheard of buff when it gives you a defense buff during its animation, mostly to address people talking about the disadvantage of having to go into combat with it. You can argue for more damage being needed there, but I think the disadvantage of getting up close is gone. I do wish my other Blaster nukes that get used up close had the same buff.

Just shortening this all down. Everyone knows about redraw. It's there, and an unfortunate shortcoming of the game's engine, but it's here to stay until a workaround is found. You can certainly argue for a buff to Dual Pistols, but you can't do so from the basis of redraw. State how the Damage or endurance use or whatever needs improving, but drop the redraw stuff. You're going to have to either live with it, or avoid the sets that have it if you can't stand it that much. There are ways to avoid it quite a bit, like I noted, but if that's not enough, you're probably going to need to avoid weapon sets entirely. Your calling it a "redraw toll" earlier certainly suggests to me that this probably would be your best option.

Ummm, Roderick was looking at all the animation times for the sets. Dual Pistols is hardly out of the park in this regard. Fire rocks in the animation time and damage department, but it needs to... it doesn't have anything else going for it. Roderick has noted that as well, so this is a sidestepping of what he was actually saying.

My biggest beef with Piercing Rounds is not the animation (though I know some don't like the look as well), but that the -resist is only present in one ammo type. I think it should be around for all of them, personally. Lethal rounds are still going to have the advantage of doing KB to help your mitigation. As for Executioner's Shot, the only way it's not on par with other T3 Blasts is the animation, which is actually the same as Sonic's T3 blast. I think you can make the argument for shortening it (I have myself), but it hasn't happened. Probably because it's hard to make the current animation work in a shorter time period.

Umbral's suggestion in another thread (don't think I'm misquoting you, Umbral) was to up the damage/endurance/recharge to help it out. Probably the best route to take with this.

Well, you can go ahead and do this again, but a lot of people have done this for Dual Pistols already. It's pretty middle of the road for a lot of things, and actually has quite good AOE capability, from what I remember of the numbers.

See above. Until redraw has a workaround, all weapon sets have to deal with it. Find a way to minimize it and deal with it, or avoid those sets. We just don't have any other options.

It really shouldn't and doesn't have a huge impact on performance, however. Otherwise Werner and other lovers of Broadsword couldn't do the insane stuff they do on their Scrappers. Blasters have to deal with redraw even less than they do.

Okay. Not really sure we're debating anything, then. On my Arch/Devices, I don't find using most of my devices powers mid-combat to be worthwhile. I have thrown out a cal trops when things went bad on a team (and it didn't look like they would before a fight), but that's it. I hardly ever use web grenade, as it helps me more to kill it rather than slow it. Or I can stun it.

I would love to have a redraw workaround, though. I don't think it's nice having to redraw to use your secondary at all, but that's how the game works now. It'd be nice to shoot a webnade from your bow or assault rifle, but I think that would take more behind the scenes work than they'd allow for the problem.

Yup. Kheldian shapeshifters have it even worse, due to the length of that animation. People have argued for a longer build up for Peacebringers because of it, but it still hasn't happened. Might be a good workaround for the devs if they can't get around redraw, but you have to make the case to them. Get their attention and convince them it's worth the time.

Until then, there are ways to avoid it and live with it. If they're not enough, people are better off avoiding them. *shrugs* I don't like that, but that's the way it is. In the meantime, I'll try to remind people that redraw isn't THAT long, and that a Blaster can certainly try to chain things so they don't have to worry about it too much.

QFT. Pretty much says what I think. Blasters can solo well, and add a lot to teams. I'll take ranged damage over melee damage any day... if I was a min/maxxer. As it is, I like all ATs just fine on my teams.

Every character is going to be different, too. Some can handle more than others, and the definition of being able to solo for the devs is still the default that we get with a new character, or when you're set at +0/x0. If you're doing more than that, great. If you can't do more than that, you're not necessarily broken, though you can argue if such a character is too team-oriented.

I take it mob by mob, and depending on the team. AS is pretty nice for mitigating an alpha for a team, and also can help eliminate some nasty targets in a mob fast, and better than using some other attacks. I also try to run into mobs ahead of the team so I can make the choice as well. Pretty much all the melee ATs benefit from getting into a mob fast, so I have that tendency with all my characters.

That... certainly makes it amusing. As opposed to creepy. Hehe.

I pretty much only keep track of things with my Mid's Builds. I make a "wishbuild" for the goal end for each toon, and then have a separate build for each that is their "ongoing" build as they level up. Pretty much all I need, and not all that anal retentive to my mind... not sure how else I could make a good overall build without it. At least without making too many or too few purchases, etc.

Now that markets are merged, I only have one crafter, GP. He's been slowly working on all those badges anyway, and my villain that did a bit of crafting was way behind. No need to duplicate, especially with the e-mail system.

I usually try to keep track of players with the rating system, as I haven't had any issues with those being saved (doesn't always like to display like I tell it to). I don't really bother with it more than starring people I know, other than the few bad players I have encountered and decided to avoid like the plague (one was a Tanker with all the power pool picks he could get, didn't run his toggles or try to tank, etc.).

Hehe. Funny. I was a bit surprised by him coming out of stealth, but he shot at me. My Dual Pistols blaster and he had a nice shootout.

You can probably ask for both. MA would be different from Devices in how it plays, and give a nice option that we don't have in our secondaries now. Devices could use some tweaking, I would agree.

Eh, people rag on ST damage like you don't really need it, when there are times you do need it. Whenever I'm on an AOE focused character (my Huntsman, for one), I find myself wishing for more ST damage. It's a perception issue. And if mobs are constantly dying before you can get to them, so what? Means your team either needs to up the difficulty, or you're having fun steamrolling. Enjoy the ride. I was on a Blaster heavy Synapse this weekend, and things were dying before I could target and fire sometimes. I was commenting on how great the team was.

And yes, for regular mobs, AOE damage is quite nice, but that's how the game is set up. Until the devs come up with some different way of setting up the game in that regard, people may keep having the wrong perception (if all I needed was AOEs, my Blasters wouldn't use their ST attacks so often).

For an added tweak to Stalkers, I don't think Cal Trops as an inherent is going to do it. The debuff from a successful Assassin's Strike is a lot more useful, and making that more of a guarantee would probably be a better buff. Or tweaking their damage amounts, etc.

I don't really see Cal Trops changing people's minds, either. It's not that amazing of a power (though it is quite useful... I have it on my Dev Blaster and my Nin/Nin Stalker). How is a slow/fear patch that does minor DoT going to make people want Stalkers?

The changes some issues back were much better and more significant, and people still don't get the value of having more crits, controlling crits, and debuffs from AS (even though I notice when that debuff has landed/worn off). If people ignore those, they're going to ignore Cal Trops.

You're not the first to suggest it, though as plenty of people have pointed out, you are getting four extra slots with this power (each power in fitness), access to powers more quickly as you're leveling up, etc. It might happen, mind, but I still think "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" whenever people suggest it.

Besides the above, inherent Fitness is a buff in and of itself, and we also have a new Incarnate system offering even more ways for players to buff themselves at level 50. I'm skeptical that the devs would give us anything more, though I'll hardly scoff at more slots, either. I'm still surprised that we're getting inherent Fitness... I thought an increase endurance recovery that is similar to Beginner's Luck (increased accuracy for the first 20 levels) was the most likely thing.

So sometimes the devs can be quite generous... though after some of the strange reactions to the buff of inherent Fitness, I don't know if I'd want to give us players anything ever again.

Really? I've only had two Tsoo... ever. That I can think of, anyway. Just did that mission on my Praetorian Brute and only got two.