SpaceJew

Capped defense on invul? I'd be interested in seeing that build but I'll just ask you next time I see you on otherwise. I tried to build for psi resist/defense, but if you've got that too it would probably be superior.

With my invul/energy I've been rocking the +45% damage alpha, the -regen proc, +regen destiny, and ion and so far have been fairly happy with the situation. The added punch on the judgement and ET is nice, but when (if?) they fix Ion I think going over to the -to hit would be a darn solid way to go. The destiny unlock has certainly made popping unstoppable less of a pain these days, although I found that Eye of the Magus was a suitable anti-crash when used with Gift of the Ancients even before. Now, they're just bonuses.

The other brutes probably have +3 levels, which means they do way more damage than you no matter what assault set they use. Get your unlocks, that's all that matters.

Loot tables are broken anyway. We had a door sitter on their own team get a rare drop out of the B.A.F. so either the loot tables are not working, or the changes for doing a good job are so minute as to make no difference.

Look, if you want to keep crying about how blasters don't have survivability and you don't feel that the highest offense numbers in the game justify your squish then reroll. Blasters have been the same as they are now for so long that hoping for some magical change is probably not going to happen. Blasters are what they are, glass cannons. You can nuke mobs, with a teams help, with no problem. Face planting too often? Maybe you should travel with a sonic or a bubbler to help mitigate your damage. Heros were designed to work together, villains were designed to kick ***. Comparing the two will never give you the answer you want yet for some reason you continue to complain. Odd how so many OTHER blasters seem to make it work for them.

If, as you claim, there are tank sets that can pump out the same amount of damage as a blaster I can only infer you are talking about a blaster that just bought CoX and is taking a break from their gripping Sims story time and comparing them to a seven year vetern tank that leads task forces to victory each and every time. Either that, or you're going ahead and including some team buffs into the equasion or simply assuming each have an infinite amount of cash to slot dream builds. In the last case, I still think the blaster would pump out more damage. Would they win the fight? Probably not, but maybe. The reason they wouldn't win? They don't have a team behind them. And they're a glass cannon. You're obviously a smart cookie, so why keep belaboring a point that is completely subjective? Or is this just a massive ploy to troll?

EDIT:
Also, if your team is good enough to stagger their judgements perfectly along with their other incarnates you're not playing CoH. No one uses voice chat which would be a prereq for that level of team-play. My groups on pinnacle have vent and surprise we have no issues doing master runs. With almost all blasters. On Virtue pugs it's a crap shoot where every other team fails miserably. Even if this were not so, blasters are still awesome. You can't counter the argument that they have the highest DPS potential of any CoX class. The. Highest. Potential. You might not reach that potential, but that's not the games fault. It's either yours or your team leaders fault that they can't build a team correctly.

How about scrappers, as a comparison. The big bubble shield that gives insane defense/resistance or the mez protection shield, or hell even the +regeneration heal make a blaster a better version of a scrapper don't you think? Sure, the shields and heals degrade but it gives a blaster a tier 9 survivability clickie. I think that marginalizes scrappers and means that no one will take them on raids. Right? It's the same logic as a crashless nuke for everyone. I guess the 'giving up too much for offense' argument still holds water since they just threw blasters a huge bone in survivability and debuff proc's.

You were right in schooling me on damage caps and damage resistance debuff numbers, but the fact remains a blaster will always have the potential to do more damage than any other class. It's what they do. If you dislike playing a class that's all offense and you desire more survivabilty or crowd control or whatever perhaps you should play a scrapper since that's what a scrapper is. Or even certain classes of corruptor or defender. Perhaps you've been hanging your hat on the wrong archtype since I've talked to plenty of people that are playing Blasters as their main toon in the raids and all of them seem pretty stoked about the fact they can now tank while nuking and debuffing. And yes, even a 10% resistance debuff is huge for a blaster since they aren't wasting their time with things like throwing out heals or spending time buffing other players.

I'm very impressed with your knowledge of game mechanics. Less impressed with your cries of doom when you should be ESTATIC that you now have powers that make you God. If you feel the gameplay for a blaster sucks 1-45, that's valid. Crash nukes suck, I do agree. I also agree that you can pop a tray of blues and keep on rocking. I play an Invul/Energy tank as one of my mains. If you want to ***** about crashes, try Unstoppable's complete health AND endurance crash. I found a way around it, so can you.

There's also the fact that some power combinations plain jane suck and probably always will. Blaster has this issue more than most, I will agree, but the sets that DON'T suck are amazing as even you admit with archery blasters as your example. My Rad/Psy blaster was created specifically to avoid nuke crashes while still loading out a massive amount of the least resisted types of damage in the game. I will welcome his PBAoE dark nuke and follow it up with another rad nuke. Screw the crash, everythings dead. I did it by myself. It takes a team to equal that with at LEAST two nukes from two other party members, and they're using Ion Judgement which as it stands is either broken or intended to be the only Judgement worth using.

Very good points all around. What I've managed to read in-between most of the snarky, troll-tastic posts is that blasters think (or some of you know) that you're no longer kings of damage. I guess you're right. My fortunata caps at 300% damage with buff's. Blaster caps at what again? I admit I haven't played for the last two issues. I just came back, but last I checked my blaster was capping out at 800% or so. Forgive me for not having the exact numbers. I realize these 'cap' numbers may rarely be hit by most toons, but it happens. If you roll with people that know their stuff, it will happen often.

Yes, judgement does ignore the cap number of targets and deals nuke-like damage. Did you use your actual nuke often before the change? No? Then view this as a crashless nuke you can toss into your already sick-house DPS rotations while at the same time debuffing your targets resistance with every AoE attack you toss out. The fact you already have amazing AoE attacks coupled with your new ability to debuff resistance and defense means you're about on par with others. After doing all the math, maybe you are behind but remember that there's a limit to how much you can debuff a target just like there's a limit on how high your damage can go. Your damage upper end is so incredibly higher than the amount you can debuff that I tend to believe it probably evens out. (Again, without spending hours doing math.) I would also argue that you are, in fact, doing BETTER than AT's that only have one tree of attacks because that means they can only take advantage of the debuff's tree with HALF their powers! Those other powers MIGHT be better, especially if they're stacking it with what you're using, but you'll be keeping it going all the time. Oh, and each time you hit something you get a damage buff (defiance) and a resistance debuff that can proc 100% of the time? So, what, you're complaining about being able to double-stack your class ability into something that's actually useful?

AT's don't matter anymore. Put your incarnates on and blaster-tank-nuke all you want. From what I've seen so far, past prime time hours of play no one cares what AT you are period. They just want to make the team and start the damn thing already. The fact you can shift your load-out AS YOU PLAY means that this laughably simple MMO just got way easier to the point that it honest to god does not matter what AT you are. It just matters how many level shifts you're rockin'. I have confidence that skilled blasters will prove, with time, that this system is a huge improvement to their class.

So even if I were to take my Fortunata full hero-side the Hero Epic's are still locked? I was really hoping for Physical Perfection on her when I heard this was coming but apparently double banging end proc's isn't going to be an option here...

I've managed to get my invul up to 3438 HP with Dull Pain, and I seem to recall HP being capped at 3700...does anyone know for sure what the tank cap is for HP?

Well, next time bring more people and we'll explore the possibility of letting you win =)

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There's been many a time where my jump has come up just short of the near edge of a building, and rather than hitting the edge of the roof, I'd hit the top of the side of the building, only to fall to ground (or fire escape) level before I could jump again... which really hindered the fluidity of travel that SJ is good for...


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Learn to gauge your jump distance better is all I can say. ^_^

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Please fix hover so it brings you into melee range!

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/signed

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Epic Travel Powers
- available after lvl 40 (to coincide with Epic Pools)

Either as:

a) fifth power in each travel pool (easiest), examples:
- Fly -> subsonic (fast but LOW maneuverability, long turns)
- Superspeed -> "boost jet" (allows maximum CJ+Hurdle heights while SSing)
- Teleport -> team recall or combat blink (10 ft straight ahead)
- Leaping -> "glider" (slows down the landing speed?)



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/signed

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/signed as well, especially the subsonic option
thanks!

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This seems the most reasonable option to me, these are good ideas! I would like to see them as options before level 40, but either way those seem like resonable fixes.

It bothers me more that Speed Boost roots you, but hey, it's a buff for other people so I guess that's how it works. Not that big of a deal though since I'm super-speed anyway. The day I can't catch a team mate to put it on them is the day I start using sprint instead.

You're going to find that 90% of the mayhem missions you get become insane as soon as more people are involved. There are a few different reasons for that; the main one being that for every extra team member, you have to destroy more of any one type of destructible item to get it's time bonus. I.E. instead of blowing two of something you'll be required to blow up four. I can't say that I know what the exact ratio of increase IS, but I can tell you that on an 8 man team it takes a LOT of items. Oh, and most people are crazy, stupid, or both.

This is the main reason why most people will tell you to solo mayhem missions. At a certain point, it will take more time to actually find and DESTROY those items than the time bonus they are really worth. (With a few exceptions of course.)

In fact, there are two main strategies I'll use when dealing with a mayhem. My main desire in taking on a mayhem is XP and temp. powers. In order to be able to farm all that XP, you need time. In order to get the power, you need to rob the bank. These goals can easily be completed at the same time, but depending on your focus (power or XP) can influence what you really want to do.

If you want both, the simple way to start is blowing stuff up. I'm not saying ignore the longbow and cops, just don't make them your primary target unless you're crazy. Keep track of what you're blowing up, and target more of it's kind to receive it's bonus sooner. Flight is a really useful power to have while doing this, even if it's just a jetpack. Basically, fly around and find groups of objects that either have minimal bad guys or none. Land. Destroy junk.

Now, it is very key to remember exactly what time bonus you've already done in order to not slow yourself down with things that won't matter. My primary object targets are as follows.

List:
Trash Cans (look like barrels, so be careful)
Barrels
Cardboard Boxes
Metal Crates
News-stands (Very easy to get this bonus)
Pay Phones (another easy one)
Mailboxes
Fire Hydrants
PPD Cars
PPD Vans (These take forever!)
Trucks
Cars
Dumpsters
Large Cargo Containers (also a long one)

This is not by any means a complete list. There are just the things that I usually look for. Keep that in mind.

In general these will be very easy to destroy. AoE's will do wonders for you, and if you don't have AoE's, well, all these objects do a small amount of explode damage to the objects around them. If you chain it right, you can sometimes take out a whole group of items with one or two well placed blows. Most of these have a one minute time bonus, some have two or even three minute bonus.

Now, while you're on your rampage of destruction, make sure you're moving towards the bank. Otherwise it just takes to long. If, by some chance, you see the side mission on the way then kill the guys to get the key. You can usually tell who gives the side missions by simply looking for the group of enemy that aren't cops or longbow. Mook, Freakshow, Gears, it's all the same.

Now, if you DON'T see those guys on the way to the Bank don't worry. When you get there, you should still have at least 15 minutes from your rampaging. Go in, and wait at the entrance door for about 15 seconds. Sometimes a longbow ambush comes in behind you, but I've found that in teams of two or less they generally don't show up.

After you're in the bank, walk to the door and look in. A lot of people will run past you and out, and I suggest letting them run by and don't do anything until the ones that are gonna run do so. After this, all that should be left are one or two cowering citizens and the cops. Kill the cops. Work your way to the vault and go to town. Be careful though, because when you start attacking the vault an ambush spawns at the door and makes it's way to you. Most of the time, I'm able to get the door down before the ambush gets to me. If this isn't the case, well, I suggest opening the vault first then killing the mob. If you aren't a brute or mastermind you should probably kill the mob first.

After opening the vault, steal the treasure. At that moment, a hero spawns at the doorway and makes it's way to you. My suggestion is to wait at the vault entrance for them, or at the elevator (if there is one) instead of running to them.Choke points are your friend as any class.

Now that the Hero (or you) is dead you have free reign. I usuallly have about ten minutes left at this point, and usually I'll just wander around clearing mobs and blowing up anything that I don't have a time bonus for yet. With luck, you can find one of the side mission groups and attempt it for a bonus of six, or up to 11 minutes bonus time from it, as well as an extra temp. power.

(A word of warning though, if the side mission involves wall safe's, be VERY careful or don't try it at all. Alarms sound after each safe and in certain area's of the map, and each time a longbow ambush appears and hunts you down. If you end up with several alarms, well, you're dead or they are.)

(Another word of warning, I would not consider doing a mayhem solo with a dominator. Not that they can't do it, and maybe even do it well. Mainly, just because their damage output is very minimal in almost every case. Many of the items are easy to destroy even for a Dom, but many are a bit more difficult. If you DO try with a dominator, I'd just go for the bank and hope for the best. If you finish that, well, use dominate on the bigger items you can't destroy easily.)

If anyone has a better guide for this, feel free to link it. I'm especially interested in people with expierence in the higher level mayhem missions since most of my characters are around the twenty mark.