Neogumbercules

The long DoT could be a factor. I should re-iterate that I've observed this unique to acid mortar behavior for years now, and I've played just about every debuff powerset there is. The degree to which Acid Mortar can trigger enemy AI running insanity is beyond anything I've seen from Rad, Dark, Kin or anything else.

Since I happen to be on vacation this week I will take some time to document and make videos of exactly what is happening. I'll use multiple debuffing characters, an AE mission with standard mobs (any enemy group suggestions?) and run each test multiple times.

The plan will be this: I go into the mish, pop 3 purples and some oranges, lay out my debuffs, and then wait and see. I'll record each session and throw em together in 1 video and compare reactions.

The sexyness of Tornado on top of a group of mobs sitting under your Freezing Rain patch can not be overstated. That is an enormous amount of control, debuffing and damage out of just two powers, which you can cast from range, and will work 100% of the time.

You can even take Heat Mastery (if you don't mind taking that as your APP) and throw Fireball into the mix along with all of your Demon's AoEs. Though even without that, FR + Tornado looks amazing.

Acid Mortar is the trigger for this behavior.

Probably over 9000 bil if you really wanna be strong and pretty.

If you aren't overly concerned with being being pretty, but you still wanna be strong, you could throw a very effective build together for less than 1 billion. If you have a few bucks to spend it's worth investing in some super packs for the ATIOs and reward merits. Get a bunch of merits and go buy all of the LotGs and other super expensive items from the merit vendor.

I'm mostly excited about how this change, and the mentioned but not confirmed/promised/expected changes to VS, effect Elec Blast. If I am remembering correctly the TAoE nukes will recharge even faster than the PBAoE versions?

This has the potential of turning Elec Blast into a very capable AoE monster. It also has a snipe, so given the right build combinations, it could have very good ST damage as well if the insta-snipe changes go into effect as they are currently understood.

How about 17% tohit? For a Blaster that's 3 SOs in Tactics + a Kismet IO with .08% left over that you need to make up by either over slotting Tactics or getting it from somewhere else. That way every set with a snipe can have insta-snipe, but it requires an investment of slots and a particular IO in order to achieve.

That way it's not "free" for Blasters and the price Defenders and Corrs pay is having to use a power pick and several slots to take advantage of it. They typically have tighter builds as they possess powersets that already usually require them to take a slot of lot of their powers, where as Blasters should be taking as much damage as they can get their hands on since that's essentially their only function.

I'd rather see the dependency on a to-hit bonus be more evenly balanced so it doesn't unfairly favor some powersets and ATs while leaving other combinations up the creek or dependent on Aim/BU.

Acid Mortar has a completely undocumented (AFAIK) effect that causes enemies, be they simple minions or mighty AVs, to flee like the Japanese from Godzilla.

I forgot about this effect until I teamed with a Trapper during the Blockbuster event, which I have run about 20 times. Note that this has simply reminded me of this issue, but the issue itself has existed and annoyed myself and other players for years.

Normally the AVs will stand their ground during a normal run regardless of what type of players I was playing with. However, when this trapper put down his Acid Mortar the dogs that the Western AV guy summons ran around the area aimlessly at about 100mph (because apparently these dogs took Super Speed). The Minotaur, which will usually stand and fight whoever he aggros was running around the arena like a maniac, as were all of the other AVs.

During the Heist portion, Sylvia Rexton, whom I have never seen move from melee range on any other run, immediately super jumped up into the ceiling rafters and all over the top of those really tall storage racks the second she got hit with the mortar.

I don't think this is a morale breaking event as I have teamed with 2 /Rad controllers who both stacked RI, EF and LR on the AVs and they didn't try to run. If this is a morale breaking event then I'm guessing someone misplaced a decimal point somewhere and the mortar is doing like -10bajillion morale on everything it hits.

Devs, can you please take a look at Acid Mortar, find out why this is happening, and possibly correct it?

Thanks Arcana. So it seems safe to assume that 4 seconds (first tick as soon as the power is cast, then 4 seconds after that to get to the 3rd tick) is long enough to rely on most of a spawn being knocked down with enemies only having ~ a 20% chance to avoid three ticks in a row.

40% of the time, it works -every- time!

I'm happy with the change. I'm glad I got to play around with it before the fix though.

Anyone out there willing to do the math to determine how long a mob can stand in the patch before the law of averages makes it statistically impossible to avoid a tick.

For example, there's a 60% chance the mob will dodge the first tick. 2 seconds later the power will roll the kd again. What are the chances the same mob will dodge the first tick AND the second tick?

How many seconds would it take to make it all but certain that the mob will be be effected?

This is all very good news and I am now willfully translating everything from the coffee talk into an absolute confirmation that they are buffing devices. It's my brain, I'll believe what I want!

Maybe they'll even re-work AR!

I like the changes to the OF proc in Bonfire and Tornado. Keeps them as viable damage options while giving them a decent level of control AND making still retaining a great increase in usefulness. Bravo.

Damage isn't the point though. It provides absolute, complete, total, unbreakable control to everything it touches.

You could cast bonfire and Brawl an 8 man spawn of +20s to death (well if they couldn't regen hp, but you get the point) with just that one power and do it in complete safety.

I'd rather they make changes to Bonfire as opposed to just simply locking out the IO. I'm never a fan of removing options from this game (I hate powers that can't be buffed/slotted for recharge like Willpower's T9 for example), but this is pretty obviously overpowered and they need to do something about it.

I've run the event 15 times so far and haven't gotten the proc. Annoying but that's just my luck :/

I like the idea of this event but the Heist portion needs a little more time in the oven. Mostly I just find the fights you have to deal with to be out of place. The whole idea of the heist is to pull it off perfectly without being found out, but you're forced to fight 2 battles after being tracked to your hideout. It would be nice if doing it perfectly prevented the battles. The first few times I played this I thought that the team had screwed up somehow.

The strict time-limits don't really give you time to relax and enjoy the heist because you have that pressure to do everything correctly. Also, the Thief job requires you to do absolutely nothing besides click on glowies and walk down a hallway. There's no challenge there.

The gladiator portion is alright but the auto-sk to level 29 and 4p limit ruins a lot of the fun for me. Unless the team has a decent support character to use buffs/debuffs the entire battle becomes a drag. Most characters I have, even when slotted decently for endurance, spend most of the time sucking wind. This problem is magnified when you have a team with 2 or more sub-20 low damage ATs that have none of their best powers. I know you can cherry pick a team but I primarily use the TuT for this stuff as there usually aren't enough people on that want to run it when I play.

I can't really think of any event or TF recently where the team make-up had such a drastic effect on difficulty. When I play my /Rad controller it's almost a mindless cakewalk. When You have a team full of meleers or low-level support characters without their best powers it can take 2-3 times as long and it's flat out not fun anymore. That sorta flies in the face of what CoH is about.

I just got off a run where I was a lone blaster with 3 other randoms who did very little/no damage. The only way we could make progress in the first heist AV was for me to pop 3 purples and 7 reds then blast until they wore off. At this point I would die on purpose so I could make an inspiration run and cap my damage before loading back in to repeat the process. That fight took like 15 minutes. The other players on the team were only capable of keeping her from regenerating, but couldn't really accumulate any damage.

Lastly, I know the reason random rewards are random, but running the same event over and over again, even one that is this short, is boring. I'm not sure what the fairest solution would be, but it would be nice if the rewards were a little ... less random. The option to choose the IO you want wouldn't be that bad since you'd need to run it 6 times to get the full set anyway. If not that, then remove the event cooldown. The devs are not curbing "farming" this event, they are just encouraging alt-jumping, which is just annoying for the player.

Since we're almost done here I thought I'd poke you with my question one more time

What do you think of Time Bomb granting a second "detonate" power that lets you pop it whenever you want. Any thoughts on ranged casting for the Bomb/Mine powers?

Can I get over time bomb, or should I keep holding out hope? Oh and thanks for doing this. As an almost 6 year player, I appreciate this kind of dev interaction with the long term fanbase.

I'm glad to see Voltaic Sentinel is getting some love. I would be really happy to see it made a toggle. I would gladly pay the endurance cost of a T3 blast over time rather than have to resummon it repeatedly. (even if the duration is increased, but that's just me.)

While we're here can you give any insight into Time Bomb? Would you consider making it a long ranged summon.

How about an idea where taking time bomb gives you two powers: Time Bomb and Detonate. One summons the time bomb and, if left alone, it will blow in 15s. However if the player chooses, he can hit Detonate and blow it immediately. This gives it the flexibility of both obeying the cottage rule AND making it actually useful for players who choose to detonate.

Would you consider turning Trip Mine into a short range summon also? No other functional changes, since it's already pretty good, but give it possibly a 10 or 15 ft placement range.

I have a DB/DA Brute and a Claws/DA Scrapper and their end bars barely move. Granted, I have 3 +end procs, Cardiac Core, Miracle/Numina, and a ToE proc in Dark Regen.

DA Becomes incredibly powerful when you remove endurance from the equation and build up some +def bonuses.

What would the experienced blaster players say to a "fix for blasters" that involves drastically reducing the cast time of all of their powers? This further leverages their "kill first" playstyle.

I have been playing with my Kinetic Melee Stalker who has a .67 cast time on her un-hidden AS. The attack goes off so fast you can blink and miss it, and you do massive damage. Apply that concept to Blasters and you have an AT that still has a very heavy focus on damage, gains survivability by further increasing your kill speed (dead guys don't shoot back) and you can squeeze more attacks into your BU-AIM time.

I'm currently leveling a Rad/Fire and am can pretty much kill everything I'm facing with Aim-BU-Irradiate-FSC-Combustion but the problem is I die every time I attempt it during the animation time. Cut those powers down to 1 second animation times and that would be a game changer.

Maybe another idea would be something along the lines of changing defiance to be an added bonus damage proc that deals unresistable damage? Kind of like an always-on Fiery Embrace. It would be a straight 40% or so damage boost, which is also modified by damage bonuses just like Fiery Embrace. That would surely put Blasters comfortably on top of the damage mountain across all level ranges.

In with the "waiting for toggle suppression" crowd before I respec out of my HO build. I do have nova form, but I use that mainly for laughs and only in very specific situations.

This thread has inspired me to make a Rad/Fire of my own. I went for a very high defense build with an emphasis on pure PBAoE carnage. Lock things down with Web Envelope, wade in and let it rip. It doesn't have great recharge, but my opening salvo should be more than enough to kill anything... so who needs recharge? :P

Soft-capped to S/L/E, decent defense to positionals. Not great F/C defense, but that's ok. The build -has- to have fly, to fit with my character theme.

I'm pretty happy with it, but my one big worry is endurance. Cardiac cuts down my end use considerably, but lose too much defense if I drop agility, and my recharge suffers even more. Plus, the end mod in Agility saturates stamina for me. Not quite sure what I am gonna do about that yet. If I had a Glad 3% IO things would be different but oh well.

Anyway, here it is for anyone who is interested:

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.956
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Blaster
Primary Power Set: Radiation Blast
Secondary Power Set: Fire Manipulation
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Flight
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Neutrino Bolt -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(17), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 1: Ring of Fire -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(A), Enf'dOp-EndRdx/Immob(33), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(42), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(42)
Level 2: Irradiate -- Erad-Dmg(A), Erad-Acc/Rchg(3), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(7), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Erad-%Dam(43)
Level 4: Combustion -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-%Dam(5), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(5), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(15), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 8: Aim -- Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(A), Rec'dRet-ToHit(9), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 10: Fire Sword Circle -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(11), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(11), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), Oblit-%Dam(13), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 12: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 16: Build Up -- Rec'dRet-ToHit(A), Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(17), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 18: Cosmic Burst -- SBlastersW-Acc/Dmg(A), SBlastersW-Dmg/Rchg(19), SBlastersW-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), SBlastersW-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(25), SBlastersW-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(25), SBlastersW-Rchg/Dmg%(40)
Level 20: Blazing Aura -- Erad-Dmg(A), Erad-Acc/Rchg(21), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), Erad-%Dam(42), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(46), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(48)
Level 22: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(23), LkGmblr-Rchg+(23)
Level 24: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 26: Neutron Bomb -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(27), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(27), Posi-Dam%(29), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(29)
Level 28: Consume -- Erad-Acc/Rchg(A), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(33), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Erad-Dmg(34), Erad-%Dam(34)
Level 30: Fire Sword -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(31), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(31), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31)
Level 32: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 35: Scorpion Shield -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(36), LkGmblr-Rchg+(36)
Level 38: Web Envelope -- GravAnch-Hold%(A), GravAnch-Immob/Rchg(39), GravAnch-Acc/Immob/Rchg(39), GravAnch-Acc/Rchg(39), GravAnch-Immob/EndRdx(40)
Level 41: Fly -- Zephyr-Travel(A)
Level 44: Hot Feet -- Erad-Dmg(A), Erad-Acc/Rchg(45), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(46)
Level 47: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(48), LkGmblr-Rchg+(48)
Level 49: Web Cocoon -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(50), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(50), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(50)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Defiance
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 4: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(15)
Level 4: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-End%(43)
Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve
Level 0: Portal Jockey
Level 0: Task Force Commander
Level 0: The Atlas Medallion
Level 50: Agility Core Paragon
Level 50: Reactive Radial Flawless Interface
Level 50: Void Radial Final Judgement
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