Scythus

Originally Posted by Bionic_Flea

Archery and Assault Rifle are 2 of the weakest single target blast sets, but they are high in AoE damage, at least per Starsman.

From a chart he posted in beta:



They start out higher than sonic, but that doesn't take into account sonic's resistance debuff nor critter resistances. You'll also note that DPs position in the chart is dependent on Piercing shot hitting 3 targets, which isn't as hard to do as it was originally, but its hardly something that happens most times you use it.

You will also note that both archery and AR are slightly ahead of DP in single target unless you use incendiary rounds but WAY ahead in AoE damage. If DP matched archery and AR in those categories, I think more folks might be satisfied (we'll never get everyone satisfied).

Originally Posted by Zaran

Most annoying thing about Hermit in Cave at Top of REALLY High Mountain is he never gives you his damn cell phone number.

Originally Posted by orangemonkey

There already is a poop monster summoning power. What do you call Mr.Poops in the earth control set?

Originally Posted by Warkupo

By that argument, DP is better than archery because it can escape it's lethal damage more often than in just a single power. Smashing doesn't count.

Originally Posted by Bionic_Flea

I disagree. The analyses that I have seen just did a straight damage comparison without accounting for resistances. Since lethal is the most common resistance among critters and players and since most of the damage of the set is lethal regardless of which ammo, the damage in actual play is lower than what the pure numbers would indicate.

The fact that you can change damage type to something that your enemy might be weak to gives it flexibility but does not make up for the lost damage, as I pointed out above. Here's a chart someone else compiled of all NPC resistances and weaknesses.

Originally Posted by SpittingTrashcan

There is a beautiful bug in the last mission of Captain Mako's arc dealing with the elimination of Ace McKnight. Our boy Ace is trying to leave the Isles on a boat, and has hired a band of mercenaries to protect his escape. Unfortunately, he apparently didn't do the research, because the mercenaries he hired were the Knives of Artemis. Who knows what words he exchanges with his hired bodyguards while you're out of earshot, but by the time you get to him they're already laying into him with caltrops and swords. After being jerked around by McKnight during Willy Wheeler's arc, it's easy to imagine the Knives' reaction to his smug snake routine.

Technically this is a faction error, but I hope that it is never ever fixed.

Originally Posted by Panzerwaffen

Andrew Jackson approves of this thread topic.

Originally Posted by Bionic_Flea

I don't think that it's contradictory at all. He's not asking for every single power in each set to be the same damage/endurance/recharge with nothing but the graphics being different. But he is asking that they be somehow equivalent -- that whatever is given up for in one area is made up for in another area.

Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex

On top of the pets taking up space, there's also a mentality of many Masterminds that buffs are for pets only. Sometimes when I add a Mastermind to a team what I see is teammates getting slaughtered while the MM is busily healing his zombies. It's one thing to concentrate on your pets while the team is doing ok, but really poor style when the team is about to wipe. I suspect a lot of Masterminds don't even look at the team window to see how things are going, based on the number of times I've been killed.

That said, not everything about Masterminds is bad. Having those extra bodies around as potential aggro targets does make my squishies feel safer.

Originally Posted by Skyraker

I'm pretty happy with the AR animations, overall. I would like to see some options available for weapon customization. I'd love to see my AR blaster using a massive instrument of death like the one below.

Originally Posted by Duncan_Frost

The key with Duel Pistols is to stand back to back and never take more than ten steps. Be ready for your opponent to fire early - not all of us are honourable gentlemen!

Originally Posted by FunstuffofDoom

I didn't say I want everything to be the same. I explicitly said I didn't want everything to be the same. You even acknowledged that I explicitly said I didn't want ever set to be the same.

Or, in more relevant terms, I don't want every single set to be the same powers, but with different colored effects.

I do want all sets to be fundamentally equal. At the same things? No. But, compensation should exist, such that a set low in one area should be high in another.

So, to again use more relevant terms, if a set has low utility, it should have a correspondingly high ability to deal damage.

Originally Posted by srmalloy

You're still going up the stairs? On the entry level of the pool room, go over to the extreme right (as seen from the entrance), near the alcove there (which always has a transformation chamber that needs to be destroyed anyway). Now turn around and face the middle of the room, and look up. There's a gap between the upper level and the chamber wall that's big enough to fly or leap up through to get to the top level. In one of the pools to either side of the walkway at that point, you'll generally find random Council, but you're far enough away from the transformation chambers to keep from triggering them until after you've cleaned up that end and can decide how you want to proceed about taking out the chambers.

Originally Posted by FunstuffofDoom

Now, to cut down any straw men before they pop up, I do not mean that all powersets should be the exact same thing, or any permutation of that argument. That's a very, very boring game. Powersets should be comparably strong, in different ways. Strengths and weaknesses, all that jazz.

So, do I want everything to be Fire/Archery? No. I want everything to be Blast/Blast. I want everything to line up perfectly, to be even in some quantifiable way. If X is potential for dealing ST damage, Y is potential for AoE, and Z is additional Utility, every powerset should be XYZ.

Originally Posted by Umbral

Considering I did comprehensive damage analysis for DP under both conditions and it didn't perform very well under either, I'm going to have to disagree with you. I saw the numbers in both conditions and compared them. The open beta was better, but it still isn't quite balanced with the other sets.

The only times that DP is actually a respectable contender for DPS is when it is using either Standard Ammo (thanks to PR's -res) or Incendiary Ammo (thanks to the bonus DoT). Chem Ammo and Cryo Ammo are actually substandard for damage specifically because they're not getting either of those benefits. It makes even less sense when you consider that Incendiary is giving up a mitigatory secondary effect in exchange for bonus damage without actually getting much out of the deal. It would be akin to going from Energy Blast to Fire Blast and only getting a paltry 1% increase in DPS.

What makes it worse is that DP isn't actually all that spectacular at AoE damage (mostly thanks to long animations that forcibly extend cycle times) and Hail of Bullets is substantially weaker than it should be (if you want to argue this, I can give you a link), considering existing precedent. The set isn't so completely borked that it's unplayable. The set is simply having to compete for mediocrity. The fact that it's pretty is currently bolstering its playability by a large amount (not to mention the shiny newness) but that doesn't really do much when, by all empirical accounts, the set is underperforming.

Balancing by "feel" and "enjoyability" is all nice and good, but when all a set has going for it is "BABs did an awesome job!", Castle and Synapse probably have some work to do.

Originally Posted by Dispari

Well that video DID show Hail of Bullets with what looks like a 30-35 second recharge time.

Originally Posted by FunstuffofDoom

So, I freely admit we might've been looking at different numbers. However, the ones I saw, during Open Beta, put DP at in the bottom half of all sets for Single Target and Area of Effect.

Originally Posted by Steelclaw

tldr version:

Simple Step to save the game....

Log out...

The game will be saved automatically.

Originally Posted by MYYST_BLAKWIDOW

When I logged when double xp weekend started. I saw many people with dual pistols. Many I asked said they didn't like them too much. Some said they animation was overkill. And some others just said it was ok but just ok. I was curious and so I made a traps/dual pistol defender. In a few hours I got to level 30. It was the best fun since my fire/device blaster. I really like the DP powers and the animation. I rarely miss and I do have nice damage. At least my defender can solo missions instead of relying on others to help. I'm not sure I would like a DP blaster. My defender feels more like a blaster then a defender that is for sure. I would recommend the build to anyone.

Originally Posted by Organica

I've learned to load up on inspirations, especially 2-3 purples, then rush up and attack the first one immediately. On a non-DPS toon I might kill one of the chambers, then die and have to come back, but on a scrapper or blaster I can usually survive the whole thing. But that's only because I KNOW from experience what to expect. If you don't, that room is a train wreck.

Originally Posted by Rajani Isa

They might not reward more than Rikti lts, and they spawn as lts (as far as placement, etc), but they have Minion stats otherwise. They reward more than a standard rikti minion.

Originally Posted by DarkEther

Circular illogic. You get XP for the foe, not for a power. The "pets" are a power the foe uses. You'd no more get XP for "defeating" an oil slick by burning it off.

Again, power versus foe. The foe uses a power that makes the pet. XP for foe. No xp for pet/power. That's how the game works.

Originally Posted by DarkEther

You do get compensated for the creature, and the fact that you die from one of it's attack forms, which happens to be a "pet", does not mean you should not get debt - the creature defeated you, after all.