Leo_G

Yeah, those bullets made it hard to quote each one without putting list markers inside each quote so consider this my revenge.

When have I gotten on anyone? Besides TJ for being himself and Arcana? Both of which came at me, not the other way around.

Secondly, I'm just commenting on the points I want to comment on. I'm not ignoring the rest of your posts, it's just what I say regarding those parts don't matter. I'm just posting my opinions anyway.

I'd just like to point out that, IMO, Doms are different.

They're different from ranged characters because they have melee powers that are particularly strong (stronger than Blasters currently) and yet they have abilities that can keep mass foes at range to boot.

They're different from melee characters because they do not have passive survival tools to stay in melee range but have ranged attacks and crowd control/active survival tools to survive in melee or range.

Beyond that, they have attack powers in their secondary with mods that make those sets as powerful as a primary.

So they are different and that should be considered and balanced around when making changes to Doms. Just because ranged ATs can do something isn't justification for Doms and just because melee ATs can do something doesn't make that a reason to extend to Doms.

So as for Melees using insta-snipe, that may change, but do remember that Stalkers and Scrappers already pay for their snipe prowess: Patron Pool snipes recharge longer than Dom snipes and do less damage than than either Blasters' or Doms'. PS: They also animate at a glacially slow speed (8sec).

Well, Not Icy Assault.


I probably am in that niche group that tend to take snipes. Not all the time, but I do enjoy Blazing Bolt, Psionic Lance and Ranged Shot.

But this just isn't true. You can't say 'won't benefit from the snipe change' because *ALL* snipes benefit from the snipe change. All you have to do is have 22% ToHit buff which you can get from temp powers, inspirations or team buffs. That isn't 'not benefiting', that's just not having your cake and eating it too.

But then I'm in the school of belief that, just because the power is interruptible and takes time to cast, doesn't mean it's a useless power sitting in your tray. You can still click it and it will still produce damage. So I find it hard to believe anyone's alienated here unless you really think snipes cannot be used in any other circumstance but with +22% ToHit bonus.

And yeah, of course buffing everything until everything is buffed is probably the more desired goal around here. Doesn't mean it's a good idea. Ranged sets need help because ranged sets have been balanced in a wonky way. Assault sets? When has there ever been anything wrong with Assault sets (except Icy)?

Please keep perspective though.

If people see the snipe change as "Oh, now we *HAVE* to be perma +22% ToHit or else this change is trash!", then it's easily percievable that making snipes instant cast while domination is up would be seen as "Oh, now we *HAVE* to be perma-dom or else you're gimp!"

Beside that, it starts to widen the damage margins of assault sets that don't have snipes. What happens to Earth, Thorn and Icy Assault that don't get snipes? It's not like the power they obtain in place of the snipe (for Earth, they get Mudpots instead of a snipe, for Thorns it's Thorntrops and for Icy it's Chilling Embrace) are particularly strong. Useful perhaps, but not enough utility to counter the offensive advantage of losing an insta-snipe during domination, IMO.

Personally, I think just keeping insta-snipe away from Domination is just the easiest path since giving that to Domination just requires more balancing of other assault sets.

omg!

Yes, Hawk has mentioned that this is aimed at all interruptible ranged snipe powers with the exception of LRM Rocket from Munitions Mastery. That said, Moonbeam and the other snipes are still pretty pricey...they recharge in over 20sec if I'm not mistaken.

Unfortunately Focused Accuracy from Body Mastery and Targeting Drone from Weapons Mastery are exempt from this list because it requires taking a certain pool that locks Stalkers/Scrappers out of their only source of a snipe. If they take Body or Weapons, they can't take Mu, Soul or Mace Mastery so no snipe.

This has me wondering, if they proliferate Invulnerability to Stalkers, will they just give them a passive or add-on ToHit buff that doesn't require targets like they did for Energy Aura's Entropy Aura or perhaps leave the effect out like they did with Willpower's -ToHit aura.

Yay for having my question indirectly answered!

Apparently Synapse has something in mind for Swap Ammo.

That's good to hear!

On terms of Blaster Manipulation sets, taking into account the sustain features, can we expect more improvements to the functionality of the rest of the manipulation set? I won't ask to what extent, but just hearing that Time Bomb may be looked at and increasing Frozen Aura's range up from 10ft seems new and promising...it gives me hope that maybe Cauterizing Aura will make it to 15ft or the target cap for Ice Patch to be increased from 5 targets.

Don't recall ever asking...and I know you're not the charitable type so...

I didn't ask "Did they announce..." I asked "Are there plans..." and I ask in what regards "facing multiple dangerous targets". I know what was announced, obviously. If not specific enough, I'm asking if more sustainability would be added *beyond* the actual functionality being added. I.e. if the sustain mechanics added aren't enough, are they just going to buff the regen higher or address it through other means.

It's not a rhetorical statement. If the sustain mechanics are deemed enough and Blasters are meant to deal with tougher threats through other means than survival (i.e. damage) then the answer would be no.

The way Hawk explained the sustain mechanic describes a feature to keep you fighting, not a direct answer to common high threats like Ring Mistresses, Archons, Zeus Titans and the like. Even my Doms and Stalkers have issues with them, and I'm much better at playing those.

Now if he chose to make those threats the counter to the sustain feature as a price for the additional functionality it provides, then leaving bosses as the personal weakpoint of the AT would return back to the answer being no.


I didn't ask that because he already answered that.

Although an interesting question, I didn't ask that because I'm not particularly interested in it (unless he has tested against multiple tough targets and found the changes *did* allow him to face such threats...to which I'd begin to think the changes are too drastic).

I simply ask *if* facing multiple mezzing, debuffing and/or highly resistant foes simultaneously was going to be a point to address with these new sustain mechanics. Because some regen isn't going to make a huge difference when a Ring mistress drops a mask of Vitiation on you and the strong men follow up soon after with boulders and super strength attacks.


Oy oy oy. Why are you coming here picking apart my posts? If you're trying to help me, like you're implying, stop pretending I'm talking non-sense.

I've been talking about Blasters using mez to counter strong threats like the ones I mention for weeks. Don't pretend I'm just now bringing it up. Heck, if you are trying to help, then you already know my question has an angle to buff blasters' mezzing abilities.

Of course, I'm open to lots of suggestions to counter the threats I mentioned, I just don't think you'd have to make/buy a specific blaster build (like mine) designed to either 1-2 hold a boss, 1-shot hold a boss or mass control the whole group. It'd be better if some sort of similar functionality were built into the basic function of the AT.

Yeah, a joking hyperbole not calling out anyone and with a smily is considered non-hostile therefore neutral on the internet.

I think my question was pretty simple. It was even short. I made it on my phone in like 2 min. "Any plans to address blaster's in-combat sustainability?" was my question and the rest was basically an explanation of what I'd consider in-combat sustainability.

Then add damage in those powers.

Then I'd suggest you reevaluate suggested changes to Frozen Aura to incorporate the power's current capacity of control.

Back then, we didn't have interface either.

But I feel it makes more sense for Frozen Aura to do damage for Tankers. They only have 1 set that does damage, their secondary, so it makes sense that 7 of Ice Melee's powers do damage.

Blaster's secondaries are not comparable to a melee AT's melee set. Not every power is meant to do damage and every manipulation set has powers primarily built for utility and do no damage, some even have more than half the powers being damageless.

Adding damage to Frozen Aura misses the point of using Frozen Aura as it cancels the primary effect of that power. I'd sooner ask for damage to be added to Shiver since at least that's a cone and usable 60ft away and only has 1 effect (slow).

So someone who put down their question, waited patiently until after time runs out can't make can't make a neutral comment about being skipped over without getting a snarky reply from TJ?

Lol [pancake] you too.

I hope Frozen Aura doesn't get damage. How else will you stack sleeps? Not to mention Interface breaks damaging sleep powers. Why would I want more broken crap?

Now if Frozen Aura were changed into a damaging power that also summoned a sleep patch like Static Field and therefore allowed me to stack sleeps afterward, sure. But if you want damage from Ice, you arguably picked the wrong secondary.

Can't remember how exactly Hawk described it, but the way I see it, 'sustain' is a mix of downtime suppression and overall survivability. 'Sustain' isn't meant to make a Blaster a tank, it's meant to get you from one group of foes to the next and improve your general effective health.

Actually, I'd bet the design goal behind 'sustain' is to improve those things on a Blaster while *not* making them alphastrike taking tanks.

They already answered that. They have a lot of things on their plate and they're focusing on parts at a time. A change to crashing nukes won't just affect Blasters but Corruptors and Defenders too.