StratoNexus

Interestingly, Super Strength Taunt is one of the primary reasons I bought the game. I was at a friend's house watching him play, and he taunted. I was like, OMG, what was that?

I do understand though. After that initial joy, the bloom has worn off some (although first impressions are not easy to shake, the beckon and groan still make me smile). I'll never tire of pointing my katana at someone, but non-weapon taunts are less cool.

I will admit, I expected we would have more alternate animations for a variety of powers than we currently do. It wouldn't take all new animations either, the game has a variety of animations in it already that could be spread around.

Taunt? I have never skipped it. I once put it off until the late 20s (an experiment I will never repeat based on that one experience). Confront is more situational. I almost never take it, but I have it on two scrappers. The wife has it on at least one, but she usually skips it too.

Most tankers and brutes I have ever played with have it. There are some that skip it, but it is uncommon.

He is gonna GOUGE OUT HIS OWN EYES! Save the eyes!

It bothers me to see people misrepresenting the thread. Most responders to this thread are in strong support of the dev changes. The few that responded in a negative way did so in a way I would not represent as whining.

Indeed. She could have called them whiners and dismissed them, but instead felt the issue was worth exploring and discussing. She even said this:
That is different than incorrectly dismissing people as whiners.

The PBAoE nukes are 145 seconds. I thought I heard the range nukes were 3 minutes, but I don't have a reference for that.

So you are whining about perceived whining. I still disagree, this thread is almost entirely positive or thoughtful. There is very little complaining, mostly people expressing a positive view of the changes with a very few expressing mild concern about the very slight lowering of damage.

I am pretty sure I know why you did not post some other examples.

I read it. I am pretty sure people who are suggesting the need to gouge out their eyes have not. I am definitely sure people who suggest this is worse than the comments about the Dominator changes have not read this thread.

I haven't seen anyone whining. Unless you are whining in your post? Are you whining about perceived whining? People seem to be considering the change and talking about all its facets.

Indeed. Obviously, /Elec and /Nrg have a very good value for X, but I didn't think it was fair to analyze Elec blast based on them.

My main Elec blaster is Elec/Fire, but I have only made it into the 20s (I wanted to test to see how well Tesla Cage worked compared to, say, Blaze, so once I got a few levels past 18, I learned what I wanted). At these early levels, with blaster level damage, Lts are almost always dead before drain really kicks in. I think Arcanaville's suggestion might frequently prevent them from being able to get a second use of their big hitters (they do often live long enough for that, although they are also usually mezzed when I am solo). Bosses often end up running around a few seconds unable to do anything, but even they are close to dead before the drain has much of an effect.

Of course, at higher levels, enemy HPs outpace the damage we can deal and drain becomes stronger, especially for bosses. A long time ago I had an Elec/Elec blaster on test that was 50 and fully SOd, perma-hasten (hey, it was a very long time ago). Obviously, drain worked very well on him.

My primary Elec blast characters are a Kin/Elec/Mace and an Emp/Elec/Power defender. I realize the lower damage of those characters makes the drain more viable, however, I find the statement that enemies die so fast the drain is not useful to be less than compelling when you can make the drain very strong in 12 seconds.

I am looking forward to the nuke changes very much, but a power with a base 3 minutes recharge is not an every spawn power.

I need to know how long X is for Elec control and armor. Because in my experience, X on Elec blast is ~10-12 seconds. That doesn't seem terribly long to me and it usually isn't a problem living that long. It certainly is enough time to take significant damage, but combined with the ability to heal once X is reached (something all blasters will have after I24), I think the end drain will be even more useful even if no other changes are made (and I would like to see other changes, but I just don't believe the end drain on Elec blast is as bad as is being stated).

Indeed, but that is the idea behind -max end and the end discount penalty. Using those you can make the big attacks cost too much to use, while still allowing the smaller attacks to work. End drain ceases to be all or nothing, instead providing levels of mitigation even before you totally disable the spawn.

That is amazing. I never knew that my ally's toggle buffs ceased working on me when I got mezzed. Thanks all for the edumacation.

The time "lost" up front would almost certainly be paid back with interest very quickly, since less guess, test, guess, test would be necessary. Oh, you would still need to test, but if it was done right, there should be less iterations needed and rework is the bane of meeting schedules, usually much worse than process development.

I have had bad experiences with process development, but that doesn't mean it should be avoided or minimized.

Most of the people who would care to go to the lengths to get the most out of the snipe change won't have a problem figuring it out. Most of the people who will be affected by the snipe change will be happy just knowing:
This is not how I recall Electric blast. I recall the drain being very useful even early in a character's career (and the early levels used to last a lot longer, so it mattered).

I do not agree with your position that end drain is impossible to make useful (I should say more useful, because I find it useful now).

It doesn't even warrant a decrease in power, if I am remembering the numbers correctly. There is, of course, no hidden/unhidden state with which to gate the variance.

Out of a fight/in a fight are not very good as gating mechanic, though, so soemthing would need to be added.

The proposed sniper change already is this, by the way. In one circumstance (hidden/less than 22% to-hit) it behaves way A. In the other circumstance (unhidden/22% or more to-hit) it behaves way B. It is arguable that the to-hit gate is somewhat more onerous than the hidden one, but there are advantages the to-hit gate has over hidden.

It is an AI change and requires behavior pets are not particularly good at modeling. Go into the center of a spawn (and wiggle around as the spawn alters), while also using its range attacks.

I think it is an interesting idea to help with drain, but I am partial to the -max end idea, myself.

Yes you do. It is currently weak when it comes to making a solely ranged chain, instead having a pet and a PBAoE attack. You want to change that. You want Electric to play different than it currently does. Own it and move on.

I do not believe that is true, but I haven't specifically paid attention. I do not recall my defense plummeting when I get mezzed but am still in the area of ally Maneuvers and Dispersion Bubble, but I also haven't specifically watched for it.

And it was good.

Actually, even in game that happens a lot. Sometimes I can easily solo Marauder; other times it takes me and 7 to 15 allies.

Sometimes I can stop a cosmic level threat like Rularuu-Wade solo. Other times I am not strong enough to defeat an aspect of Rularuu solo.

OK. I should have figured that, but I had to make sure. I agree with the general premise.

If we go to ANY AT, then blasters definitely meet your qualification. What is bothersome is that their damage advantage over other, more survivable, strong damage ATs is not clear (and in some cases, not actually in existence).

It is possible I am mistaken. I am basing my belief on general recollection of scrapper/brute DPS numbers for all the sets with my recollection of blaster DPS numbers (and I may be glossing over /Dev in that recollection, Arch/Dev or Nrg/Dev seem like prime candidates for lowest single target DPS blasters, and my gut tells me that could be lower than the scrapper average).

I am not actually opposed to this. I am not gung-ho for it, because as you note, I feel the secondary sets of blasters should matter and if you choose to be a range-only blaster, you should be at some kind of disadvantage compared to one who utilizes both sets, just as any scrapper or brute who only takes a few of their secondary powers would be at a disadvantage to those who take most of their secondary.

Why? Because in order for scrappers to get that survivability advantage, they have to use two sets instead of one. Note, I agree that blasters using both sets should not just compete with scrappers but should CLEARLY be outdamaging them. I do agree that using just the primary they should be able to compete. I am not convinced they don't generally compete now. Compete. I don't particularly think blasters that just use their primary should clearly outdamage scrappers, but I do agree they should not be noticeably behind.

Also, the best scrapper/brute damage numbers come from also using secondary powers like AAO and FE and damage auras. So while their attacks do mostly come from the primary, a significant portion of their offensive strength actually does come from utilizing both primary and secondary.

The big problem with my position is that the very times you want to focus on single target damage are also usually the times where the range advantage could be very useful. Standing next to the AV with a blaster in order to gain my dreamworld better DPS is not always a good plan and the new sustain powers are not likely to change that fact. It is the one thing I wrestle with as a blaster lover, my best damage comes from melee (generally), but melee is dangerous.

The trend in the last few years to buff blaster range strength is not wrong, but it is marginalizing the original design and making the trade-off to use the melee powers worse. We are already pretty close to the point where taking and using the melee powers is actually a bad decision thanks to buffs to range as well as how NPC powers function (go ahead and be a blaster with two damage auras who likes to stand in the middle of a spawn when the Talons of Vengeance are dropping their doom patches).

Agreed, but I want to note that this still doesn't mean I agree that the lowest single target DPS blaster is not as good as the average single target DPS scrapper, scrappers/brutes have some interesting outliers thanks to powers like AAO; and buff/debuff, of course, has significant advantages in that Pylon situation.

I can only hope you are wrong and continue to add my opinion that this shouldn't be the case and advocate changes that make it clearly not the case.

What if the changes leave them at the "bottom", but bring them closer? Do blasters have to become obviously better than two or three ATs after I24 or else the changes are a failure?

The last statement here is possibly not what you mean. It seems likely blasters are at that point now (I am sure when you said "hat-picked other AT's" you were thinking other damage ATs, but the average single target DPS of scrappers is not as high as some think). Do you mean blaster's single-target primary only damage?

Is making the snipe integral to those sets single target DPS your preferred solution or just the one you think we may be able to best convince the devs to do? If it is not your preferred solution, do you have a suggestion?

It is possible, if the snipe changes are as strong as originally presented, the devs may be hesitant to add other damage increases as a whole. My own desire to tone the snipe buff down stems partly from that (but more from the fact that I prefer a less powerful snipe and also from the fact that I fear the animations will look goofy).

I still think you are overplaying the unevenness, but I certainly hope you are incorrect when you posit fast snipes are intended to be the catch-all single-target buff for snipe sets.

But, but... You are the one who accused him of looking at the snipe change as part of the whole suite of blaster changes and then later accused him of looking at the snipe changes in a vacuum.

Ha! Its even better than that. The recharge is only 50% higher, not 100%. Poor, poor Melt Armor.

The main portions of the debuff last 45 seconds (barring the bug you mentioned). The control, of course, only lasts the 15.