Tin_Soldier

[ QUOTE ]
Yes the game CAN be learned on the fly but who is paying for that while that brand new player to COX is learning HOW? There was a huge war on these forums when AE hit and players were making 50 in a few hours. I have experienced the result of some of that personally...

Found myself on a team with 4 other players (only one had a VET badge and that was the 3 month one). We did a safeguard mission and after taking out the minions at the entrance I headed to the vault and attacked the Boss. I held my own for a while but this was a mission in Talos and the main villain had a Tsoo Sorceror healing him. Eventually I ended on the floor and wondered what the heck happened to my support. My mini map showed 1 other team mate still in the bank and that one was at the front door. I hit the field hospital amd joined my "TEAM MATES?" at the Arachnos flyer where we did manage to prevent the bank robbers from escaping?

Prior to AE and all the PLing how many players didn't know that there is a Main villain IN the bank you need to defeat? I faceplanted because my "team" had no clue. Partly my own fault for not making sure they were following me but for crying out loud its a bank mission ... everyone should know you have to take out the signature villain at the vault I ASSUMED everyone was behind me.

Once outside I checked badges.. not only were there no vet badges but the few most of the team had were from MA Arcs. In short while they didn't get a chance to make 50 before the nerf they did manage to get THAT high without ever learning a thing about the game.

NO New players should never PL. They need to learn the basics.. Like where the train is, what city zones they can get to from which train line, and FOR GOODNESS SAKES.. how to actually play the game.

[/ QUOTE ]
Your example strikes me as being a failure more of team leadership than the individual players.
It doesn't have to be much but the leader should make sure everyone is on the same page.

Has everyone done this before?
{Some player} has point. He (or she) leads and starts the fights. Everyone else follows and fights.
We are going to 1)killall, 2)just fight to objective, 3)ghost mission.
You can get more detailed but give the team an idea at least.

If you assume players are going to do what you expect without telling them what you expect then you have a recipe for chaos. Chaos can be fun but don't get mad if it kills you.

[ QUOTE ]
Electric... Fire Manipulation? Yes. Fire manipulation has incredible synergy with Electric Blast!

You don't get very good utilization of the Endurance Drain, but since I have a level 42 EB/EM/EM I can tell you the END drain in Electric is overrated by the Dev team.

Minions don't have large END-heavy powers so they bounce back fast and even Throwing Knives on a Boss is high damage to a squishy. Plus, by the time you drain anything it has done high damage already and is in melee with you if you used Powersink (10ft. PBAoE). So END Drain looks good on paper, but is very likely to get your Blaster killed before it works.

So, why Fire Manipulation? Short Circuit, Ball Lightning, Combustion, Consume, Hot Feet are all 15-20 foot PBAoE's.

Consume only requires 0.52 Endurance allowing you to use Thunderous Blast easily since any Buff or Inspiration can restore half a point of End making you Boss-like in your endurance usage and turning the tables on them as it were.

Hot Feet plus Super Speed is the perfect ranging combo, giving Electric Blast some much needed damage mitigation.

In the past FM was looked down on for it's lack of good Melee attacks. Now that Blaster Melee damage is lowered FM looks alot better for many sets especially those with nukes.

[/ QUOTE ]
It may well be fun but a couple of points.
1) Combustion animates nearly a second slower than Power Sink so if Short Circuit + Power Sink will get you killed so will Short Circuit + Combustion. Also two-thirds of Combustion's damage is a seven second DoT.
2) Blaster Melee damage got lowered? Did I miss something?

[ QUOTE ]
It's also not a cone, but a rain, and costs more end still.

[/ QUOTE ]
Rain of Arrows does 26% more damage over a 75% larger area. Also, neither Thunderous Blast nor Blizzard are PBAoE.

[ QUOTE ]
Have you played /device?
SG + CD > Stealth IO
Somewhere in the range of 10 - 100x better. A much much bigger difference in the ability to stealth , not to mention the combination of Defense and -Acc.

Webgrenade smokes the other forced (tier1) secondaries. -50% stackable recharge? Ever fought an AV?
That's true about trip mine. Taser is debatable. I don't agree with the rest.

[/ QUOTE ]
The -recharge of Web Grenade doesn't self stack. The -recharge of Chilblain does. Chilblain also does more than 62.55 times as much damage with a faster animation.

[ QUOTE ]
Recharge from set IOs. And no, its far from overpowering, if making it much worth it at all at this point.

[/ QUOTE ]
By that standard damage is an inheritable buff but Enrages, Aim, Build Up, and Defiance do not increase Voltaic Sentinel's damage. I was wondering about things like Accelerate Metabolism, Fortitude, Speed Boost, and Adrenalin Boost. Does Voltaic Sentinel inherit any of those?

<qr>
I'm still curious. What buffs does Voltaic Sentinel inherit?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Powers like Lightning Storm, Voltaic Sentinel and Auto Turret are precisely the powers that were targeted by this fix. Making exemptions for them would defeat the purpose, don't you think?

[/ QUOTE ]

I may be coming in a bit late into this, but I have one question for you Castle:

Can you honestly tell me that Voltaic Sentinel needed a "nerf"

or really, that anything in electric blast needed it?

Side note: I have an elec/dev that I love dearly, and actually, until this change was mentioned, I didn't know that VS or Gun Drone could even inherit hasten (drat!) so it won't really affect me that much, but I just want to make it clear that you see Elec as being in the "above average" category

[/ QUOTE ]
You haven't missed anything Psyonico. Hasten doesn't affect Voltaic Sentinel's firing rate on Live servers. Also not affecting Sparky's attack are Aim, Build Up, Enrages, Defiance, and Recharge enhancements. The only thing I've tested that has any effect is EndMod IO sets. I have not tested Recharge Intensive Pet stes and am not going to.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Sparky accepts them but post nerf gets absolutely no benefit from the "recharge intensive" part of the set or the recharge aspect that's a part of the IOs in these sets.

[/ QUOTE ]As has been said several dozen times already, that recharge will *still* allow you to get the pet out more often. Which was the point of these sets in the first place.

[/ QUOTE ]
That may be the point of those sets but it is a point wasted on Voltaic Sentinel. It is a summons that doesn't stack whose duration = its recharge time.

<QR>
Awwwww, c'mon. No one wants to show off their knowledge and tell me what buffs Voltaic Sentinel inherits?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Opp. I forgot about. I thought VS wasn't grouped with them.

[/ QUOTE ]

What's wierd about VS is that even though according to CoD it is perma out of the box (60s recharge, 60s duration) I constantly see it disappear a short time before it recharges. And I might even have a Recharge enhancement in it, I'm not sure whether I do or not.

Clearly it should not take Recharge if it does take longer to recharge than its duration, can't have multiples, AND can't have its own recharge buffed. Hopefully that's something that will be looked at.

[/ QUOTE ]

The Duration starts ticking down as soon as you click the power, the Recharge doesn't start till you have finished the cast. So there is a bit over a 3s gap in VS.

Recharge is not useless in it, as VS does inherit some buffs, so re-summoning it can be used to refresh the buffs on it to get more out of it.

[Edit for grammar]

[/ QUOTE ]
I wasn't aware of that. Which buffs if I may ask?

[ QUOTE ]
Something to majorly bear in mind. The powers are already balance in regard to their currently intended performance. The leaked Reacharge altereed their performance.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
2) VS does not benefit from Recharge now since it's perma out of the box. End cost and animation time seems reasonable. Would you consider shortening its lifespan to about 45 seconds, and speeding up its fire rate so that it does the same damage over its lifetime? That way slotting up Recharge in it makes a bit of sense, right now since it doesn't stack, that's wasted slotting.


[/ QUOTE ]

Rechage still makes since as you can get multiples out. Most people don't bother with the power or just 4 slotting is an leave it be.



[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

No. You can't.

Issue 5, titled Forest of Dread, was a major revision to City of Heroes released on Wednesday, August 31, 2005. Some of the major features released in this issue were:

Controller Pets, Dark Miasma/Dark Servant and Electrical Blast/Voltaic Sentinel can no longer 'stack'. Reusing these summon powers before your pet has expired will remove the old pets and spawn new ones. Pet powers were too strong with multiple instances out at once. Once a Controller or Defender had pets, their play style and balance completely changed. Pets remain a powerful tool for heroes, but are no longer class-defining. Due to the change in the powers, we removed the randomness in the number of pets you get with Fire Imps and Phantom Army.

Edit: fixed broken quote tags.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Powers like Lightning Storm, Voltaic Sentinel and Auto Turret are precisely the powers that were targeted by this fix. Making exemptions for them would defeat the purpose, don't you think?

[/ QUOTE ]

Weird, I specifically tested the Dom version of VS several months ago, and could not get any kind of visible recharge effect from any amount of sneaky IO +rech slotting.


[/ QUOTE ]
EndMod sets (on Blaster VS anyway).

[ QUOTE ]
5 issues later, Elec's Ancillary pool has another power. I forget the name off-hand, but it's the Tier 9 power from Elec Brutes on CoV.

It turns you into an avatar of electricity, SERIOUSLY pumps up your resistances and such. Seems like the perfect addition to the Blaptroller arsenal, especially as a panic button.

Perhaps a new guide could be written with updated info for IO sets, power changes and additions.

Also, is that Elec SG still active?

[/ QUOTE ]
The addition is Surge of Power. Selectable at 44 if you have Shocking Bolt or Static Discharge.
To follow up Circuit_Boy's post the group was Don't Whiz on the Electric Fence. They have a website here. I don't play on Virtue so I can't say if they're still active.

[ QUOTE ]
The real question for Electricity Manipulation is: does a Damage / Mez or Accuracy / Mez effect Endurance Drain? If it does, it's very effective in certain powers in that set.

[/ QUOTE ]
Sadly, neither Peroxisome Exposure nor Endoplasm Exposure has any effect on endurance drain.

Electricity Manipulation
Peroxisome Exposure & Endoplasm Exposure:
Shocking Grasp (good damage & hold)
Charged Brawl (20% chance to Sleep (mag 3) probably not worth it)
Havoc Punch (50% chance to Sleep (mag 3) probably not worth it)
Thunder Strike (50% chance to Stun (mag 3) -probably not worth it)

Endoplasm Exposure only:
Lightning Clap (50% chance to Stun (mag 2) PBAoE)

Also, Broadsword/Parry seems to have gone missing form Membrane Exposure & Cytoskeleton Exposure.

[ QUOTE ]
Blaster pityfests also include "We never get anything nice."

[/ QUOTE ]
Ah. Then it's a good thing I haven't said anything like that.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
However, far be it from me to take away from your blaster pityfest.

[/ QUOTE ]
You said "I saw Statesman come out and say several months ago that the blaster secondaries will be reworked. Not thinking about, but that it will happen.". I asked you for a cite because I had no recollection of Statesman having made any such statement. In what way is that a "pityfest"?

[/ QUOTE ]

The extreme readiness to say "nuh uh, Statesman did not say they were going to fix blasters."

There was also that monosyllabic "Cite." You might as well grunt your displeasure.

[ QUOTE ]
Fix Defiance. Fix Blaster secondaries. Add more powers to primaries and secondaries. Fix ED. Adding additional powersets.

We’re happy with Defiance.

We will look at Blaster secondaries; we know some need attention.

We’d like to add more power sets and powers; it’s just that they take a LONG time. A single new power set can take as long as a month to finish; that isn’t a man month in terms of manpower. That’s a real month. Adding individual powers to sets take longer, because an artist needs to change styles to match each set.

We’re happy with ED.

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]
But I thought a Blaster pityfest would be more along the lines of "Them mean old scrappers took away my I win button". Or something like that. Also, I never said "Statesman did not say they were going to fix blasters.". Until now. Because Statesman did not say they were going to fix blasters. He said they were going to look at them. That could be good, it could be bad, it could be both, it could be neither. We won't know until the Devs tell us what exactly they are doing.
And yes Cite is monosyllabic. So is please. And together they are no more rude than "find it yourself".

[ QUOTE ]
However, far be it from me to take away from your blaster pityfest.

[/ QUOTE ]
You said "I saw Statesman come out and say several months ago that the blaster secondaries will be reworked. Not thinking about, but that it will happen.". I asked you for a cite because I had no recollection of Statesman having made any such statement. In what way is that a "pityfest"?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I saw Statesman come out and say several months ago that the blaster secondaries will be reworked. Not thinking about, but that it will happen.

[/ QUOTE ]
Cite please.

[/ QUOTE ]
Do a search for Statesman's posts in the blaster forum for the past two years.

[/ QUOTE ]
Searched. Found this and this and this . Nothing like a guarantee. So, cite please.

[ QUOTE ]
I saw Statesman come out and say several months ago that the blaster secondaries will be reworked. Not thinking about, but that it will happen.

[/ QUOTE ]
Cite please.

[ QUOTE ]
BTW, what the heck is schadenfreude?

[/ QUOTE ]
Schadenfreude: A malicious satisfaction obtained from the misfortunes of others

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Do Fred's Patron arc,

[/ QUOTE ]

I doubt a patron who's supposed to be with you from levels 41-50 would only give you one arc. Even regular contacts give you at least two as a rule.

[/ QUOTE ]
Even if there were 4, it wouldn't take a significant period of time to do them with a level 50 helping.
On a different note, does anyone not working for Cryptic/NC Soft know exactly how the pools are going to work? 20 pools (4 Patrons X 5 ATs) or 4 largeish pools (like Kheldian powersets)?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This just ignores reality. Positron stated that the choice is TRULY permanent

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, I'm not saying otherwise. I'm saying that we don't know what it is we'd be permanently committing TO yet. A pool of four powers? Six? Eight? Preset, in a given order, or fluid? Like the hero ancillary powers, or not?

I've shifted my position a bit now, anyway. I'm pretty much convinced it's all about removing the incentive to PL.

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't think it would eliminate PL. Let's say Fred's VG needs a Corruptor for their PvP team. PL Fred to 40, Do Fred's Patron arc, PL Fred the rest of the way to 50. A level 50 anything will burn through Fred's arc in no time. At best a speed bump on the express to 50.

[ QUOTE ]
Hmm I thought it was pretty well accepted that scrapper base damage is 125% of blaster base? If that's not correct and it's lower then I am even more skeptical about scrapper damage brags.

[/ QUOTE ]
I thought it was 12.5% but it's easy enough to check. My blaster's Brawl does 20.01 damge at 50. Does anyone with a 50 Scrapper want to post their Brawl damage?

[ QUOTE ]
EM Pulse seemed to be working just fine for my rad/rad as of yesterday or so. I hope that the blaster EM Pulse isn't a disorient though, I would like my blaster to pick that up eventually (EM Pulse + a new and improved arrow rain ftw)

[/ QUOTE ]
According to the Blaster Ancillary Pools (Overview) by deadboy_champion here it is a disorient. I just popped over to test to try it again. Definitely the drunk walk. It also has an 800 (eight hundred) second recharge.