concreteshift

I'm just making my thoughts known. I know the devs are good people. But you have to post strongly to get their attention. You can't just sit and wait. I'm not angry or going to go forum postal. In fact, I've been pretty zen about Blasters since when I gave up hope after seeing Defiance 2.0.

But seriously. I've been playing since 2004. My first character was a Blaster. My first 50 was a Blaster. I was the designated Blaster on my team of four via my old D&D buddies. I died and died and died and died and then face-planted some more. It was a running joke that the Blaster was the redshirt on the team no matter what we did.

I've been waiting for 8 years. The increments have been fractional. Compared to the improvements Dominators/Scrappers went through.

I understand your point. I guess what I'm trying to communicate is that when you built a Scrapper the archetype really fulfilled the vision of a superhero game.

Not so much with a Blaster. With the way mezzes work in this game, Blasters are always at a disadvantage compared to every other archetype. Seriously, Dominators get a break free power and anti-mezz while Blasters now have /regen. Big whoo. That does nothing when you're shut down by Thorn mage bosses and then repeatedly blown to smithereens.

We all know that feeling. It's been a running joke about face-planting since the beginning of this game. I remember when all the Blaster players on the forums rose in mock revolt with the "I'm A Blaster..." posts.

Again, if the devs really want to make this game _more_ popular being small-minded about Blaster changes won't help at all. It's what frustrates new players. Believe me. I try to get so many friends to play. And when they fire up a Blaster and get completely flustered playing their character they get frustrated. Then they roll a Scrapper. The way Blasters play is an antithesis to the vision of Blasters by new players.

A shadow dragon wouldn't be bad for Dark Control pet.

Any guesses on what the final power will be? I'm assuming it'll be a pet right? I'm hoping a Night Dragon or some Cthulu like creature. Anything but Fluffy 2.

Oh right, I incorrectly assumed internet forums are made up of reasonable people. Silly me. LOL

You know, I really don't have a problem with this. It's because you can get it later with empyrean merits. Unlike the ITF, where you have to finish the ITF successfully to get the armor and swords, here you don't have to finish the new trial to get the recipe. The drop is just a little story-based / gameplay reward.

Must we always gnash our teeth and bring out the Frankenstein mobs for every quirk in the gameplay rewards/loot mechanic?

Your best bet leveling is to latch onto any TFs, SFs or Trials running. There are so many of them, pay attention to the TF channels on a particular server and there's always one being announced. The ITF alone lets you start participating at 35 and you can level like crazy with that. Plus all the bonuses, drops and salvage you get on a real Task Force instead of the AE.

It all depends on what you are building for.

You usually have the big 3:

Recharge

Defense

Damage

Then a few others, such as End Mod if you are Electric/Electric or some such.

I like to try for Recharge/Defense. So, Thunderstrikes, Decimations, Purples, LotGs, Reactive Armor, Touch of Death.

Drain Psyche trumps anything in the Dark Secondary. Not that I think Dark is bad but you're asking for the "best" blaster.

Again, Fire/MM/Foce of Nature. Once you reach level 44 and you actually planned for hitting the soft cap you will absolutely see the difference. All those sweet AoEs and buffs working together with the fast, hard hitting recharge of Fire.

With the new build flexibility with inherent Stamina, etc. now it's really hard to justify skipping Hasten.

Remember, at the 40-50s on, there are TONS of stuff that debuffs recharge. Nasty EBs and GMs. You want Hasten to counteract that.

Easy.

Fire/MM/Foce of Nature/Incarnate Barrier. Get Combat Jumping and Aid Self. Sprinkle in self bubbling if needed after Level 41.

Get every defense you can. Soft-cap range. Grab Archmage, Geas, Portal Jockey.

Build Envenomed Dagger, always keep one extra recipe for it and salvage at all times.

Foce for when chips go all down. Hit Barrier. On tough foes, use Envenomed Dagger to kill their regen. Go to town.

Use MM buffs as needed.

Ahh got it. Thank you everyone. It never entered my head that the Devs could bifurcate the different character models to make one for pay and one for free. That's pretty mind-blowing for some reason to me because I thought all the models would be included in the character creation.

And Apex and Tin Mage are ludicrously easy now with Incarnate powers. Once you have a character with Tier 3s you will blitz through the TFs in about 20 mins. And you can farm those to your hearts content and pocket the Astral or 10 threads.

Yup, he knocked into the wall with his crane kick. And it was awesome!

Then I thought I wish I had that for my dual pistols blaster. Dangit!

I'm not knocking Titanic Weapons because I luv me some weapon sets but on a pure speculation level, I was thinking the Devs would go with some sort of form-shifting or power-shifting powerset because it would be wholly unique to the game.

For example, an animal form-shifting power where you get to transform like Khelds into a defensive form, a range form, a melee form, AoE control form and the like. Keeping in mind the graphics limitations of the engine, the forms wouldn't be too large or elaborate such as four-legged rhino or something. You could do it with elements too. A fire range form, fire tank form, fire control, etc.

Or something like Ultra Boy from the Legion of Superheroes. I've always been the opinion that best balanced powersets were the more "clicky" ones like /regen and /ninja. Each power, mostly, is of a limited span that had a specific purpose in a battle. So for the "Ultra Boy" powerset, with a heavy damage melee, a range form, a heavy resistant form with no damage, etc. and then you would be constantly switching forms to deal with each situation with each form having its own weaknesses. Others more creative than me have explicated these powersets before.

I guess what I'm saying, very long-winded like, is that with Freedom coming I thought the Devs would be coming up with new powersets that would blow people's minds and nothing like the standard combos we've been seeing since Day 1. Remember, the Khelds came out of left field too. I'd never imagined when I started CoH that we would have something akin to Warshades and their abilities in game. We don't have to be limited to the standard combo/combo pattern in creating powersets.

Again, that being said, I am looking forward to making my Sephiroth clone with a gigantic long katana

I don't think powerset respecs will ever happen because it will require a ton of developer work and not enough payoff. The limited number of folks who really want this option and is willing to pay a significant sum of money to justify the development costs is very niche and small.

I do wish there is a way to transfer your badges to a new alt though. I think that might be a much easier way to cut development time down as a feature.

Now that I think about it, if the Devs can put in a mechanism that transfer your badges and create some very unique story arc for changing powersets it would be justifiable. Like Father Time reverses your experience and you are forced to go through unique challenges earning new powers along the way. You could tie it into a very original storyline. Or Crey stole your memories and mutated your powers. Something like that.

It is kind of strange they went with a new melee set as one of the two new powersets in the game. Very out of left field to me as I thought they would be releasing a new ranged attack powerset, either with proliferation or something else. Something that would really take advantage of the enormous leaps in graphics that has happened in the past 3 years.

I'm cautiously optimistic but was wanting something much more unique as a powerset. I thought the Devs would be satisfied with what's out there now. Who knows?? Can't wait to see it though.

Then maybe how about Korvus, in a "western" comic from "Marvel" in a very popular title, namely the X-Men.

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix4/korvusshiar.htm



Big swords aren't limited to just those strange "anime" and "manga" sources. I would also advise you to look up the Odinsword. Perhaps the MOST ridiculous gigantic sword in comics

Oh, right...



To use the "realistic" argument when we have in western comics a guy with robotic armor, War Machine, with the ability to fly and unload with a 20mm Vulcan Gatling gun on his shoulder, and still stay aloft(!) is a specious argument indeed.



Why is is that we accept superheroes with gigantic hand canons that are supposed to pass for firearms but a gigantic sword doesn't?

See...



If you're argument is that Marvel, DC and western comics don't use gigantic swords or characters use "realistic" weaponry it's a very bad argument.

Maybe they'll remake it into a co-op zone? With coming storm and all. One can only hope...

One pet tanking on Rom won't give enough of a heal boost to overcome the DPS of both you and the Vicky. Considering she can crit and placate with dual blade DPS, she's probably the best pet to use on Rom.

I don't have the numbers but I've seen my Vicky take down a boss level Commander and his missile barrage on a Lambda run without issue. Vickies are sick@!!