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I know people bring up the 500% damage cap for scrappers and I've heard that this is because being in melee is much more dangerous. So what if blaster melee attacks had the 500% damage cap while the ranged had the normal 400% cap? (Of course, that seems like it would be fairly difficult to code)
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I'm wondering why people are fixated on the cap. I want more BASE damage.
Unless you're fully slotted with Hami-Os, or waiting to use Build Up and Aim with every attack (and those two buffs don't last nearly long enough), the cap isn't really the issue.
Once you hit around 30, your base damage doesn't go up proportionately with MOB hit points. AOEs become less effective (with the same amount of aggro) and it takes far more work to bring down a boss.
The Damage Cap enters into none of that.
Take a typical power.
Typical slotting is 1 ACC 5 DAM SOs.
That brings you to about 266%. Combo that with Build Up and Aim, and I believe you're slightly over the 400%. (Raising the Cap to 500% would help in this case, but not a lot.)
Now 6-slot a power with Acc/Dam Hami-Os.
That brings you exactly to 400%. The result? You need to buffs to max out your damage.
A few of the scrapper sets have access to Build Up (but not Aim). Without Hami-Os, Build Up alone doesn't get them to the 400% mark. (And as someone who also plays scrappers, I've been ignoring Build Up in my builds...it's a pain to have to activate when the sword can just keep whirling around with other attacks.)
So, what does this mean? The solo scrapper, without Hami-Os can't reach the 400% cap, much less 500%. They need outside help to do so.
However, this makes scrappers far more wanted or needed in a group situation. I can attest that my scrappers do more damage over time than my blaster builds can. Heck, my katana scrapper can out AOE numerous blasters. On top of that, the scrappers don't kiss pavement at the drop of a hat. This adds to the damage over time. The scrapper stays upright while the blaster does not.
As a blaster, I don't mind having minimal defenses -- there's a surgical precision you need to use in missions, i.e. you can't just run in without a plan. But give the blaster higher damage at higher levels to make up for the complete lack of defense. Help the blaster out a bit on the range side (apart from the sniper shot, the most damaging attacks shouldn't happen within 10ft of a MOB or closer). If we're truly "ranged damage" then give us some range.
As a last note: I like the level 32 "Nuke Strikes" that we have. Those really do make us damage kings, but the cost of using them is high. If you don't kill everything in the blast radius, the blaster is most likely doomed. Electricity actually has an advantage here in that their Nuke Strike is ranged.
Arc# 92382 -- "The S.P.I.D.E.R. and the Tyrant" -- Ninjas! Robots! Praetorians! It's totally epic! Play it now!
Arc # 316340 -- "Husk" -- Azuria loses something, a young woman harbors a dark secret, and the fate of the world is in your hands.
In regards to the damage cap I am just insulted that scrappers can do more damage than blasters with none of the risk.
It is like Statesman is putting a knife in my kidney and asking me if I like it as he shoves it in slow.
That is why I really hate the damage caps the way they are. It is like I am being spat in the face by the devs.
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what does a Blaster do that a Scrapper can't already do?
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Die in one shot from a single standard Boss. No scrapper over L5 has ever experienced this.
Get Mezzed. It happens to scrappers who dive into a group of master illusionists or mesmerists, but other than that it's pretty foreign to them.
Find that his control powers are far more important than his primary set to his survival, because he can't survive anything that has the ability to shoot back.
Wait until L44 for a half-decent amount of defense.
Discover that other ATs hate him for his dependence and squishiness.
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If changes are made to Blaster secondaries, such as adding new powers, please consider using the Kheldian model of power availability. What I mean is, Kheldians can unlock multiple powers from a primary or secondary set at the same time.
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Though this would be nice I really don't see it happening. The other four AT's would rightfully be upset. They made the Kheldians this way to avoid needing to make/test/ballance multiple powersets. Plus it makes the reward AT more unique.
Be a hero!!
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In regards to the damage cap I am just insulted that scrappers can do more damage than blasters with none of the risk.
It is like Statesman is putting a knife in my kidney and asking me if I like it as he shoves it in slow.
That is why I really hate the damage caps the way they are. It is like I am being spat in the face by the devs.
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The game is ran by the melee ATs, you should know that by now. When we say we die with just the slightest nudge at the enemies, The "perception" is we die at the slightest nudge. when we say that the scrappers are in a riskier situation is BS, they say the "percetion" is that the scrappers are riskier is BS. Basically, what we say is tossed to the curve into a group called speculated happenings. We play the game a lot more than the devs do. We know whats going on. I invite one of the devs to come along with some of my SG buddies. We will see what goes on.
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Energy's all about the snipe. That shorter interrupt/animation REALLY makes it worthy of use.
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I'm not sure. I haven't played energy blast, but if I have a 3rd blast with a pretty quick animation, I doubt I'd use snipe still. Though without SC I might have too.
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Strategically, snipe attacks are great. If you come on a group with one mezzing minion in the group, a slotted snipe will take him out. If it's a mob type resistant to your damage, Aim + Build Up + Snipe will take him out.
Also, frequently you can snipe a mob out and not aggro the rest of his buddies. And even if you do, that means your other attacks can be used at range and then you finish whatever's left with your melee and short range attacks.
Arc# 92382 -- "The S.P.I.D.E.R. and the Tyrant" -- Ninjas! Robots! Praetorians! It's totally epic! Play it now!
Arc # 316340 -- "Husk" -- Azuria loses something, a young woman harbors a dark secret, and the fate of the world is in your hands.
Well I'm sure most if not all of us would be more than happy to help'em level a couple of blasters up to the mid 30's and see how well they keep up with teams then.
'course they're probably really really good at the game so we'll have to make sure they get in with the really bad groups to compensate. Don't worry, its not too hard; by bad I just mean the average pickup group.
Well if a Blaster's role is ranged attacks, why can defenders snipe from a longer range then Blasters? Why do Blasters do less damage then Scrappers? Why do Blasters have less defense then support folks like Controllers or Defenders?
Amused isn't the right word for what I feel on this issue, but I've been experiencing it.
Statesman is simply not listening to the player, and is so out of sync with the game and it's players, it's just so obvious...
The regen thing, even though I'm all for it, and most scrappers getting hit with a nerf bat (Me personally, not Blasters in general), started showing this, it took a demo recording, and players actually proving it wasn't true through numbers to get an apology out of him. This blaster issue cements it, he thinks simply being a "Ranged attacker" is enough of a bonus that it out weighs out compairible damage to scrappers and out massive squisyness, when it doesn't, and because it's hard to put hard numbers on player's opinions, he probably won't ever apologize or think about listening to our suggestions.
He's already stated he disbelieves our opinions on the usefullness (or lack there of) on certain secondaries, he doesn't believe our complaints that range isn't an advantage, and he doesn't even know where he wants to take the AT, saying he thinks we're ranged, yet refusing to remove Melee...I'm seriously starting to think the other ATs were right about us not wanting to draw his attention, as no one with practical game experience would want someone this inept with his own game to alter their powersets.
I hate dogging on States like this, but man...ask for him to throw you a bone and he tries to nail you with it.
I don't know who is in Luna's Avatar but I like it!
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Well if a Blaster's role is ranged attacks, why can defenders snipe from a longer range then Blasters? Why do Blasters do less damage then Scrappers? Why do Blasters have less defense then support folks like Controllers or Defenders?
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Only two of the snipes open to Defenders have longer range, and one of those is in a set that is not heavily played due to substandard activation times.
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Here's how you can tell blasters are generally useless. Try to think of a single team, a single situation, a single time in game where a team trying to decided between two potential teammates would say "No, lets not take the scrapper, let's take the blaster!"
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Me. Every time I was running an AV mission. I wasn't looking for other scrappers to round out my team, I was looking for blasters. As a player of both a scrapper and a blaster, I don't feel that blasters are useless. Do I think that blasters could use a buff so bring more to the table on a team, and are more survivable solo? Yes. But do I think that they're useless? Certainly not.
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Only two of the snipes open to Defenders have longer range, and one of those is in a set that is not heavily played due to substandard activation times.
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What is your point Erratic? Are you saying that the sets don't have a longer snipe range in them? Or are you saying don't generalize and say that only two sets in the defender line have snipes longer than blasters?
You realize that by giving us a ton of melee attacks it's like arming a piece of artillery with a battering ram and saying no don't fire the gun use the ram. Not very logical is it?
I don't like knocking you States, I think you're good guy, but this "Vision" you have of Blasters and melee attacks is absurd. One or two is fine, the amount we have now is not right.
How about revamping the secondaries of blasters to give us what every other AT has. Since they can all do what we do best which is deal damage, and sometimes deal it better and safer than us, give us something from each of them. The ability to buff ourselves like a defender(Buildup), to control(Ice holds and Total focus), some damn mez protection, like scrappers and tanks, so I can fight instead of napping the whole time and end up dead anyway, no defense added via the secondary by it just the ability to do what we are supposed to do, blow things up fast.
It strikes me that a way of (1) making the blaster melee sets more interesting and (2) rewarding the extra risk taken by a blaster in melee is by adding something like the Katana Divine Avalanche parry into each blaster melee pool at relatively low level (with the possible exception of Devices, since it gets other goodies).
For those not familiar with it, its a fairly low damage (~2.2x Brawl IIRC?) but decent and reasonably quick attack that generates about 10 seconds of +20% melee only defense. If you are willing to use it for every other attack and use Hasten, you have somewhat lower dps but can stack it.
This allows you to build a much more survivable "blapper" if you like that, but doesn't give exceptional advantage to a blaster staying at range.
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Only two of the snipes open to Defenders have longer range, and one of those is in a set that is not heavily played due to substandard activation times.
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What is your point Erratic? Are you saying that the sets don't have a longer snipe range in them? Or are you saying don't generalize and say that only two sets in the defender line have snipes longer than blasters?
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My point Concern is that of all the things that are woes for Blasters, whining about not having 25 more range on a Snipe is not really a good thing to focus on, especially when the claim made--that Defenders have longer range on their snipes as if every Defender does--isn't true.
Would 25 more range on snipes (which not all Blasters get) suddenly make Blaster's woes go away? No? Didn't think so.
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I've read plenty of people say otherwise. One player being able to do it is way different than the majority. Similar to the way some Blasters don't have a lot of problems post-lvl38 but the majority of others do.
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Where? Every post I've seen by someone with Total Focus has been a rave review of the power, and none of them have mentioned having to take the Fighting pool to use it.
Again, I'm not saying every blaster melee power is great and must be preserved. What I'm opposed to is the idea that some good powers need to be removed, just because they're melee.
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I have TF and I love it. But to use it solo one need say Super Speed and Stealth (the animation time is so long and leaves one so vulnerable that, solo, it's best used as an alpha or an omega attack).
However I'd say that Bone Smasher is more synergystic for a blaster. Nice damage with a quick activation. Much better to use during a fight, especially solo.
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Only two of the snipes open to Defenders have longer range, and one of those is in a set that is not heavily played due to substandard activation times.
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What is your point Erratic? Are you saying that the sets don't have a longer snipe range in them? Or are you saying don't generalize and say that only two sets in the defender line have snipes longer than blasters?
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My point Concern is that of all the things that are woes for Blasters, whining about not having 25 more range on a Snipe is not really a good thing to focus on, especially when the claim made--that Defenders have longer range on their snipes as if every Defender does--isn't true.
Would 25 more range on snipes (which not all Blasters get) suddenly make Blaster's woes go away? No? Didn't think so.
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of course not. you could still get return alpha striked even at that range.
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My point Concern is that of all the things that are woes for Blasters, whining about not having 25 more range on a Snipe is not really a good thing to focus on, especially when the claim made--that Defenders have longer range on their snipes as if every Defender does--isn't true.
Would 25 more range on snipes (which not all Blasters get) suddenly make Blaster's woes go away? No? Didn't think so.
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One of the points, though that is always brought up is that the range Blasters do have is less than villian range. I am outranged by DE throwing rocks at me! I am outranged by Rikti Mentalist with their mezz powers! Being outranged like that, when we are supposed to be the kings of range damage (note not just kings of damage anymore that has been taken away from us apparently, but now ranged damage) is ridiculous. And the fact that Defenders can outrange us as well is just salt on the wound.
-S
25 more range isn't going to keep those villians from outranging you and it is hard to see how can it be salt in the wound when the Defender is just as prone to being outranged by those mobs.
If the issue is being outranged by villians, then bring that up instead of complaining some other AT has a powerset somewhere with greater range.
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Here's how you can tell blasters are generally useless. Try to think of a single team, a single situation, a single time in game where a team trying to decided between two potential teammates would say "No, lets not take the scrapper, let's take the blaster!"
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As a controller, my answer is: every time I form a team.
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Here's how you can tell blasters are generally useless. Try to think of a single team, a single situation, a single time in game where a team trying to decided between two potential teammates would say "No, lets not take the scrapper, let's take the blaster!"
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Whenever I'm playing my Tanker and have aggro locked down.
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25 more range isn't going to keep those villians from outranging you and it is hard to see how can it be salt in the wound when the Defender is just as prone to being outranged by those mobs.
If the issue is being outranged by villians, then bring that up instead of complaining some other AT has a powerset somewhere with greater range.
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I have brought that up several times in posts. It is on the top of my lists. And I have seen it on the top of many lists concerning blaster changes that are needed.
No doubt 25 more range isn't going to be sufficient, we need more than that. But it is salt in the wound. Even though a Defender can be outranged as we are by villians.. they have ways of dealing with that issue that we don't. I guess it all gets back to Range is supposed to be a blasters defense, but it is no defense when you are outranged and have nothing else.
-S
As an Illusion controller I can say no to that. Why do I need a blaster when I can spawn an army of them to do my bidding? A low level controller will surely need a blaster, 32+(hell even 18+ when Phantom Army is selectable) and it's a different ball game in most circumstances. If it's a choice between someone who can fend for themselves and not need heals every few moments to drain END I need to debuff and throw blinds out versus a character who will drop to the ground faster than you can blink in some situations, guess which way I and most other people will go.
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Answer - Ranged damage. Now, the issue is more specifically - what does a Blaster do that a Scrapper can't already do? Or, even worse, is a Scrapper inherently "stronger" than a Blaster. We want each Archetype to have a well defined role, and part of our Scrapper testing is aimed directly at this.
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Thanks for clarifying this, I have been saying our role was ranged damage for some time. People keep using the plethora of melee in our secondaries to argue against this.
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Secondly, I have no intention of removing melee attacks - it's just a "perception" by some Blasters that some of the Secondary Sets aren't as useful as Devices or Energy Manipulation. This is a rather frequent refrain in PM's (and the occasional forum post). This is something that we should also explore...we want all the Secondary sets to be fun.
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This is sad! Does this mean you have no intention of removing "all" melee or "any" melee? I agree that we shouldn't loose all melee, but some secondaries need to have some melee attacks removed. You mention in the Blaster Damage thread that melee is something that blasters want to avoid but then make secondary sets, such as Fire and Energy, that practically force you into melee, not to mention the PBAoE level 32 powers which not only force melee range but make you very vulnerable after use. Please reconcider removing some of the melee powers.
Be a hero!!