je_saist

Remember Far Realm: the developers have stated in the past that they consider the Energy Manipulation set to be too melee heavy for a blaster, and that most, if not all future Manipulation sets would be more based towards the Mental Manipulation Model.

That being said, I do like where the set idea is going. So here's a rework to actually fit the Blaster style. So, couple of notes.

• First: only 2 straight melee attacks.
• Second: up to 2 PbAOE attacks (fire gets Combustion and Fire Sword Circle, so this is acceptable).
• third: no duplication of powers / effects in the primary sets.
• fourth: as the power levels increase, the powers become more about getting OUT of trouble, so these are where the status effects go.
• fifth: the blaster's job isn't to debuff. While some toggle debuffs are in the epic set, these are for edging out the build.

Okay, with those stipulations in mind, here we go:

• 1) Background Radiation – Immobilizes the target and deals some damage. Damage: Minor Energy (DoT) Recharge: Fast

  Background Radiation causes an internal radiation field to intensify in your target, causing extreme nausea. Opponents might not feel like moving, but will still be able to attack.

• 2) Uranium Fist – an unstable radioactive melee attack that reduces an enemies defense. Damage: Medium Energy/Smashing Recharge: Fast

  Uranium Fist causes your hands to be wrapped with radiation, penetrating an enemies defense.

• 3) Atom Burst - an unstable radioactive Cone attack that reduces defense. Damage Moderate / Close Ranged

  You burst an atom in a directed spray, illuminating foes in front of you with a deadly radiation. This power has a limited range 60ft / 30 degree arc, 10 targets max

• 4: Uranium Burst - an unstable radioactive melee attack that reduces defense. Damage: High Energy / Smashing: Recharge Moderate:: 20% chance 2 mag stun.

  Uranium Burst Detonates a shard of Uranium on Impact, causing high defense debuffs. The detonation may yield a chance to stun.

• 5) Personal Amplitude Modulation - Activating this power causes your damage, to-hit, recharge rate, and recovery rate to increase.

  +50% strength to all damage for 30 seconds. +50% to all recharge for 30 seconds, +50% strength to to-hit, +100% strength to endurance recovery

• 6) Radiation Leak – While this power is active, you give off radiation that slowly damages nearby enemies over time and slightly reduces their accuracy and defense. Damage: Minor Energy (DoT) Recharge: Slow

  You've mastered the art of controlling your radiation, allowing it to seep out and damage targets close to you

• 7) Choking Infection - Ranged Hold

  You cause a massive radiation infection at a distance, causing the target to be held

• 8) Atom Smasher – a PbAoe melee click that splits some of the target's atoms, generating a powerful explosion that propels the target backwards and disrupts its damage resistance. Damage: None Recharge: Moderate :: Stun - High :: Knockback Mag 2

  Atom Smasher causes an Atomic Explosion around an enemy. The intense gas release sends enemies flying outward, stunning the target and any nearby enemies

• 9) Choking Cloud Burst - PbAoe melee click that releases a burst of cosmic energy around you. +2 mag Sleep for 16seconds.

  a PbAoe melee effect that causes enemies close to you to be overcome with Radiation sickness, and unable to move. Attacking these enemies will cause them to break free of the sickness and resume attacking.

We need more information about your system before we can answer: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=219502

Part of me is actually amazed. People keep running into this:



Seriously, I've done this once today already:

*hears a BAMPF and whips around*

Ooooo! That's where my ribbon and peach perfume mine went to!

*sneakypaws through the thread looking for hidden treasure*

THE. DEVELOPERS. SAID. NO.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...66&postcount=9
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...7&postcount=12
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...14&postcount=6
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...1&postcount=11
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...4&postcount=29
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...4&postcount=13
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...8&postcount=28
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...5&postcount=34

One of the big questions asked, repeatedly, in the various recommend me a graphics card and can my computer run Ultra Mode threads is when a price break will be coming for RadeonHD 5x00 series cards.

Well, there may be good news in store for those looking for a graphics card that does DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.0 without costing an arm and leg, and replacing the need for a heater in the winter. Well, Scratch that last part.

According to Digitimes, AMD has authorized TMSC to use it's 55 nano-meter tech to produce more 55nm GPU's, easing the burden on the 40nm process used so far. While this could mean more RadeonHD 5x00 chips hitting the market, the larger die-size will mean that heat and power costs will go up. My guess is that only the simpler graphics cards, such as the RadeonHD 5400, 5500, and 5600 cards will be manufactured at the larger die size, while the 5700 and 5800 series will continue to be manufactured at 40nm, as those are the cards where heat output and power draw really matter.

What the article isn't clear on is whether or not the new 55nm gpu's WILL be 5x00 series, or if they will be 4x00 series chips. The presumption is that if it's a 4x00 series reboot, we'll see RadeonHD 4890 prices drop to $150 or lower.

The bad news is, AMD scored several design wins due to Intel's mis-steps in the mobile market. Which means AMD now also needs chipsets.

The additional 55nm RadeonHD gpu's... are being manufactured by the machines that were previously allocated to manufacturing... chipsets.

So. If you were eying a shiny new Socket AM3 Phenom II... and you would be given the "woof woof" sounds coming from Intel's I5.... be forewarned that AMD motherboard prices could go up over the next few months as supplies of the chipsets decrease.

Now, I don't think prices will rise to the point where you'll be paying Intel I5 prices for an equivalent performance AMD processor and motherboard. I do think prices are going to rise up enough to be noticeable.

http://www.hardocp.com/news/2010/05/...exits_graphics

... I can almost hear the screams from Nvidia now.

For those unfamiliar with BFG, they have been one of the premier providers of Nvidia graphics cards, and were one of only two vendors (that I can recall), that actually produced AGEIA PHYSX add-in cards. They have announced that they are now exiting the graphics card market.

BFG's press release was clear that if you have bought a card from them, they still have stocks on hand to handle RMA's/repairs for registered users.

If you haven't registered your BFG graphics card... now would be a good time to do so.

Both Intel's and AMD's latest desktop quad-cores can do a hyper-boost if the system isn't using all 4 cores. Basically they turn off or downclock the unused cores and overclock the remaining two Cores.

For a laptop though, this tech hasn't quite filtered down, and an I7 is a horrendously bad choice, but I somewhat suspect that you are shopping via video-card and not processor. Given what I know of the most powerful mobile video cards available in laptops right now, those being the GTX 260M from Nvidia, and the RadeonHD 5x00 series from ATi/AMD, all of the currently shipping laptops pretty much force you to either take the "killing your battery life faster than you thought!" I7... or the "I'm sorry, WHAT processing power?" I5.

If you have to buy now though, I'd get the quad-core.

While I'm not going to argue that who-ever ran the numbers for Focused Accuracy in Player Versus Enviroment mode seemed lack a grasp of what the power was for, I still prefer the power for two main reasons:

• The To-Hit Debuff Resistance. One of the benefits IO bonus's and Tactics don't give you is To-Hit Debuff Resistance. You can have all the accuracy and To-Hit in the world, and reliably hit that 95% defense against even the likes of Stacked Nemesis and Cimerorans. What happens when something comes along that can wipe that To-Hit / Accuracy buff out? Okay, there's a fair argument that outside of the Rularuu, Carnival, Praetorian Shadows, and Arachnos that nothing else in the 40+ range really does a meaningful to-hit debuff. We still don't know what all Going Rogue and following issues will bring.
• Physical Perfection. When playing a tank or scrapper that just needs bit more survivability, Physical Perfection is a nice high-level edging power. If I've got endurance to burn at that level, I might as well take Focused Accuracy over Conserve Power.

Now, those reasons being said, I do want to go back and address the original problem. The new Focused Accuracy is not anywhere near as effective as the Old Focused Accuracy against targets that Focused Accuracy was supposed to be designed for. The ludicrously high endurnace drain was supposed to offset the buffs that high level NPC characters could generate. Really, in the pre-IO and early-IO days, very few scrapper and tank builds could afford the endurance to keep the power running on all the time. Most play-styles dictated that you'd only enabled FA when facing a mob that had super-buffed their defense.

When the rework hit, my opinion is that whoever rebalanced the power simply ran a previous FA enabled avatar against a random selection of enemies, ranging across Rikti, Devouring Earth, Carnival, and most of the Praetorian mobs. I think that whoever made the change forgot to check the Nemesis... mostly because they don't really spawn at level 50 on a wide-scale... and didn't check Cimerora at all... and didn't run any task forces... and didn't actually check the power against the High-Defense targets it was supposed to counter.

My gut-reaction is that Castle, Synapse, and Sunstorm should treat the current power implementation as a bug, and come up with an... alternative function to re-enable FA as a stacked-defense counter mechanism. Personally that involves jacking up the to-hit buff.

I think a mechanism that utilizes flagged opponents for Defense Buffs might also be a unique way to address the issue. The concept is that if you are surrounded by say, Bobcat minions, you get a flat To-hit / accuracy buff. If you are surrounded by Nemesis and one of them triggers vengeance, you get a +to-hit bonus for every vengeanced Nemesis soldier in range. I think this could work by setting a silent PbAOE trigger to the powers. So when Nemesis Vengeance is fired, your avatar registers the firing, then registers a PbAOE effect from all in-range Nemesis, and then boosts the To-Hit to compensate. Yes, this is probably over-elaborate, but it might be an acceptable long-term solution to keeping FA from being too overpowered, but still useful in situations where it was NEEDED to begin with.

Alternatively, lowering the endurance consumption to match Tactics would also be an acceptable post-fix for the set.