Starsman

Not sure, didn't crunch any numbers. Was a passing idea. I guess blasters would need that effect to ramp up quickly so it would have to be balanced to be that way, perhaps designed in a way that degrades... so you get held or distracted you don't get a binary drop off but perhaps after 5 to 10 seconds of inactivity the entire thing would fade out. It would just require you to be active in order to stay defensive.

Another option that crossed my mind is to give blasters a front loaded defense inherent of some sort... perhaps resistance, or defense, or a combination of both that is "always" active. However, you slowly lose it during combat.

The goal would be that a blaster is meant to kill in short fights, but also to survive without instantly killing everything. So, give them the ability to even take a solo sized alpha, the kind of alpha a stalker would survive. Unlike the scrapper, you better start killing fast because you will lose that.


Hmmm.. what if we return the old blaster defiance bar? This time make the bar be full by default out of combat, it degrades by getting attacked, not by attacking.

It refills out of combat. The more full it is the bigger the buff. The buff, ideally, would be based on your primary and secondary following the rules I suggested earlier. A Fire/Devices may have a combo of Resistance and defense, a Fire/Fire would be pure resistance.

Separate topic, sort off, but since I saw Kinetic Melee I been thinking those animations would also apply perfectly to a blaster set and been pondering: why don't we have a Kinetic Blast yet???

Hmmm... fair enough...

I guess one thing I always think about is something similar to The Human Torch. Every time he is going to use fire, he engulfs himself on his flame, protecting him from at least some attacks and not always just fire.

It may make more sense with energy/elemental sets than with physical things like weapons, but what if every attack you inflicted granted you either defense or resistance? Weapon sets like pistols or AR can add positional defense while elemental sets would add resistances.

It would be similar to defiance 2.0, only instead of adding a damage buff it would add a resist or defense buff. Some attacks maybe even add mez protection.

Problem I see is the huge reworking of every power set.

Perhaps its possible to use the tech we see in some incarnate abilities to give every offensive power a 100% proc to resist, ideally if we can categorize somehow the type of target of power that gets such proc (weapon vz non-weapon.)

Im just stirring up elements of different things in a melting pot. But what about literal domination equivalent though? Build it up just like dominators: attacking. Be able to activate it for similar benefit: mez prot + ... damage?

At this point I'm just going crazy and having fun with the ideas since I figure the direction is already decided (unless we playing "guess whats actually happening" )

I think it's the only thing I do in these forums...

Needless to say I have been disapointed I still have not seen a single balance discussion/argument in the Tanker forums since I returned. Every single thread is about X/Y builds.

I ponder if all tankers are content these days, the ones that were discontent just rolled brutes, or it was me that was always starting the fights...

Lets say that blasters had their HP boosted. So high it made them just lightly less survivable than a stalker. Let's say they also get inherent mez protection, very low mag, like 3, to some effects, not all.

Would blasters stop being blasters if they did that?

Be careful what you wish for.

Better: A self rez inherent that turns debt into blue XP (the double xp thing)

Call it "Masochism."

Are you proposing the ability to set up your trip/proximity bombs anywhere and use your primary to kick-blast them into the enemy?

So... what you are implying is that there may be a set of changes for all blast sets... and then blasters will get a bit more?

Hmm... But no Defiance 3.0... But speculating is fun....

Hmmm...

Blast wise... I dislike the range inconsistency on blaster attacks... their DPAS (IMO) never justifies the range penalty some attacks get. This is an universal blast grudge with me.

Sniper blasts are an issue... I know there was an experiment with Dominator's snipe a long time ago during their rebalance but I didnt like that result. (hopefully any snipe tweak will also revisit those dominator snipes.)

Hopefully the "no defiance 3.0" means that blasters are getting more than just a damage increase. Attacks build "fury" that grants mez/resist perhaps? Your splash mez mechanic?

If we are to speculate crazy... blasters get SR scaling resistances as an inherent?

But that's farming, an activity that is heavily dependent on cherry-picking fights. Fire/Kins trollers would likely farm enemies with simply because they were lower risk, not because they had to. Part of the goal of any farmer is to maximize kill speed at the same time you minimize risks.

Farmers are also skilled players, above average. What about the soloist that simply wants to go through story arcs at his own speed? I like my blaster in teams but I really don't solo any story content with them because (at least the first run) I never know how frustrating of an experience it will be.

Mez is not the only issue, some form of survivability boost would be heavily appreciated (can’t see many ways to add this without restructuring the Ancilary sets to be broader and earlier.)

But I feel mez is a huge issue, even if it's not the biggest. Perhaps I think this because I can get a healing power from power pools, and I can get a smash/res toggle from power pools, in addition to def, and I can get more resistance from epics... not to mention IO def bonuses (not available to free players) but I can’t get mez protection anywhere.

Hmmm... you know just crossed my mind... if they simply increased blaster resist/def modifiers, I would be VERY happy. Same with mez modifiers, at least to a point where Presence/Fear becomes useful for blasters.
Heck, maybe if they added a 5th power to Fighting that granted Mez Protection, I’d be happy! At some point I disliked the idea of Pool powers addressing AT issues (since they overkill the issue by also helping other ATs) but my stance on that has changed a lot since the introduction of IOs, not to mention Incarnate abilities.

Here is a page documenting the demo record process

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Demo_record

You can just upload the generated file, no need to actually make a huge video file.

That sounds epic! Do you have a vid or demo record? Honest question, I love watching such achievements.

You realize that the devs also love seeing you lose bets? Now just to mess with you they will name whatever they are doing "Defiance 3.0", no matter if it's the addition of an Unstoppable-like toggle power!

OK... looked through those Hybrid thingies... got to admit that control tree does look interesting. I gazed at it before and dismissed it because it just looked like another damage tree (with hold conditions) didn't notice the ability to get mez.

I'd love such a thing on Starsman, always thought tankers should be Melee controllers more than damage dealers. Shame the thing can only be used up to 50% of the time... I would love such a trait to be permanent trait of my tanker... anyways, this a blaster thread.

/end derail

Thats the hybrid thingy? (Incarnate abilities have been the lesser point of interest for me since I returned, for me the fun is lvl 1 to 50, that MAY someday change.)

Gotcha, I thought your question was specific to offensive sets that granted survivability or damage (early game Ice Melee vz Fire Melee for example.)

(O.o) I feel like a man out of time... cant tell if you are referencing things that happened while I was frozen under the North Pole or if you are hinting at something to come here...

I don't disagree with what you say, but... as far as I know... no set was designed (until recently) with any such specific goals. They were almost all accidents (other than balances brought in huge part due to your own intervention.)

BTW it crossed my mind it may be sort of thematic if all blaster attacks had a strong chance to "sleep" (with delay, on non-dot powers) with custom animations. Call them "breakable holds", with this chance to sleep being of opposite proportion to the DPA of the attack (the lower the DPA the higher sleep chance.)

If it was all sleeps with custom animations, your idea of splash mez may be even more "acceptable" as it would bring additional solo safety without turning all foes into target dummies.

Not first hand experience but I recall you used to say Sonic was the blaster's "slow but safe" primary, no? Have not studied the set enough to tell if it's anywhere near another AT's "survivable" attack set.