Dev Response - Defiance


9mm_fistcuffs

 

Posted

Agree with most here scrap the whole thing and make it add defense or resistance since it is called defiance to begin with. I would much rather prefer it add resistance based on damage from 100% health. I also do see this as a gimmick and not a solution. Mez protection is what blasters lack since they are the ones pulling the aggro too often without a tank and now even more since tanks can't aggro like they could before. And this whole tell a healer not to heal you is simply insane. You all do realize that without any resistance blasters take a couple hundred points of damage a shot normally? By the time you are in the 40% range you are usually dead within the next hit so it is pointless.

My blaster used to have 20 defense which was at least something but now with the insanity that is issue 5 global defense drop he has like 1.5 to 2.5 depending on what combat jumping is now. So getting hit about 90% more then what he did does not make up for the little bit of drop in enemies accuracy. Nor does it make up for the defiance "boost" or the hit points boost. Blasters are gonna be taking more face plants then they used to in issue 4. Just rename the AT to face plant and get it over with.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Defiance is not an effective boost to the higher end blaster and since that is where the majority of time is spent (XP halfway point is level 38 for all ATs IIRC), the majority of blasters see no boost from defiance.

At least not a boost a few red inspirations wouldn't provide while still at 100% health!

Further, while we're tempting blasters to walk on the razor's edge after removing any defenses they could have mustered together it is important to point out that just two deaths in a mission (even at higher slider settings) will provide you with more debt than XP when that beloved completion bonus comes around even with instanced missions providing halved debt.

Blasters need to stand out as the offensive juggernauts you have labeled them as from 100% health on. They have sacrificed defense, resistance, status protection, buffs, group control, and heals for damage. They have given up EVERYTHING for damage and are outdamaged by even MORE people in I5.

Drop defiance.

[/ QUOTE ]

My response to complaints like this about defiance are as follows:

1. In case you didn't read what the devs have said, although stealth has been weakened, blasters have been given more defensive powers in their secondaries. Cloaking device was the only one, so they added some for other sets. I don't want to hear people getting angry that just cloaking device without major stealth bonuses isn't enough because you chose to be a blaster, not a super reflex scrapper

2. Defiance is a bonus for an already good damage dealer. Blasters did not see ANY nerfs that weren't already dealt to every other AT. Don't complain about your new advantages.

3. Defiance is NOT meant to be the source of your powers. It is NOT meant to be in effect at all times, or else what would you be defying? Your victory? Defiance makes you do more damage when you are getting lower in health. This means that at the time when you truly need the battle to just end, you could get that chance. This is by no means a state to waltz around in.

4. Blasters have also been given a boost to their HP. Now, with I5's encouragement of teaming by not reaching survivability caps without buffs, a bubble defender and a sonic defender would be able to keep you going a lot better.

5. I have at least 3 of every AT, and after playing healers (and other defenders in general), i've found that on live servers right now, blasters are the hardest people to heal. They fight far away with AoE. Though they deal tons of damage, they then get tons of aggro, then take tons of damage, and by the time i try to heal them, they have taken off... around corners, over hills, behind walls, up in the sky, they always find somewhere, lol. Doing this doesn't drop their aggro, though, and now they are simply far from the team, unable to be healed and helped, with a few enemies attacking them that, had they stayed with the group, would have been taken care of, as would their low HP. Although not all are, blasters tend to be the hardest to heal because they are never in range of heals.

Now, after playing on the test server, though the HP bonus is minimal, and there is a lack of tankers online becuase people are testing the new power sets, blasters are far more confident in their own ability, as well as in the healers. Instead of resorting to headless chicken tactics, they are willing to wait that extra second for a heal, knowing that they could get one more moment of heavier damage. They are trusting their teams more and the team stays close together.

6. You also now have a limit to the number of enemies a single attack is allowed to hit. Blasters have been more than upset about this, but fail to notice the increase to thier survivability this causes. When fireball only hits 14 guys, and the other 14 don't get hit, only half have even noticed you now. That's half the aggro (in this case). Buckshot may only hit 10 guys or so, but that means only 10 care about your presence. These examples are considering the tanker isn't taunting and other characters aren't drawing aggro, but are simply in view of the enemies before you attack.

7. The comment about what blasters sacrifice to become offensive juggernauts is completely wrong. Blasters do get minor crowd control and defenses (in their secondaries). Blasters are given enough status effects to hold off aggro, that is unless one is an all-out AoE blaster rather than an Assassin blaster (a blaster with fully slotted damage on only single target attacks that can 2 to 4 shot a guy and never get more than two enemies-worth of aggro at a time) will live forever on a team. With ice and electric you can hold, assault rifle and devices you can disorient, using stealth, cloaking device, or smoke grenade makes you only noticeable in team combat by the enemies you attack (i've stood in the center of enemy lines on a team without a tanker using only stealth and never got more than 2 enemies on me), etc. Blasters have enough crowd control to comply with their personal needs, not the needs of the rest of the team. They also get buffs, but, again, for their personal needs. The blaster gets at least a little bit of everything but heals, and still have the most damage.

8. As for the comment about Blasters being outdamaged by even more people now....?!?!?!!?! What tanker have you seen do more damage than you!? (except for the now nerfed fire tanker ) How about the defenders that have the same attacks as you, but without Defiance, and with their drastically inferior damage? (a defender with full damage slotting will NEVER be as strong as a blaster doing the same) Scrappers are in the thick of battle and can only attack melee (with minor exceptions), so they need the survivability and damage output. As a blaster, you shouldn't be in melee range of tons of guys that are focused on you. This only leaves the controller as a possible reason for complaints. Do you know how many damaging attacks Controllers get? Some sets have one, like spectral wounds, though gravity control gets lift and propel. Fire, ice, and earth control sets don't get any moves that can be labled as real attacks. Then they eventually get pets. Most other mezzes don't do much damage if they do any at all. Doubling it isn't going to make them stronger than blasters. An illusion controller with a damage slotted spectral wounds could blind a guy and destroy him fast, but you have to remember that they illusion only gets fear and holds, no disorient, sleep, imobilize, or knockback, plus their fear is cast by a non-controllable pet. Gravity may get two attacks, but they are still not as strong as a blaster and blasters get more.

As you fight higher enemies (compared to your level), defenders slotted for damage can compare to blasters against enemies the same level as the hero. You try on enemies two or three levels higher, and the defender will be half as strong at best. This level-to-level damage scaling is the reason no one will ever be stronger than blasters and scrappers without being one himself/herself. Blasters and scrappers damage stays steady even when attacking higher level enemies, whereas the other ATs lose strength at a frightening rate. From what I've seen, most good teams fight things higher levels than themselves anyway, leaving you blasters on top for damage.


Every AT has a job, and blasters are better at theirs now, so no more complaining! Be happy with your lack of nerfs.


 

Posted

All this crap from someone who dosen't PLAY a blaster.

Defiance is worthless. none of your gobbly [censored] changes that.

Not that it matters.... a damage buff isn't what we needed anyways.

How about playing a blaster into the late game and then come back here and make those lame [censored] assertions. and those MINOR controls and defenses you speak of? When compared to what others have IT'S NOTHING. And since I've played three archetypes into the late game my experience trumps yours 6 ways to sunday. Blasters pay WAY to much for too little extra damage and the illusion of range.


 

Posted

I tested a level 25 energy/energy blaster on test server on 8/4/2005. I played solo in an indoor BP mish, alas I couldn't find anyone in my range interested in teaming.

First off, thanks, devs, for looking at blasters and trying to make them more robust.

I don't like defiance and would rather see blaster defense increased instead somehow.

My opinion before testing was that this change did not address the survivability of blasters. Blasters are glass cannons capable of inflicting large amounts of damage with little defense, defiance just seems to enforce this stereotype further. This change feels like a kludge shoe-horned in.

The meter is a good idea, but I'd need more time to get used to it. I found it hard to discipline myself to actually test defiance, as by the time my health goes into the non-green I'm usually executing a rapid tactical movement to the rear. A slight increase in the defiance bar made negligible difference in damge output, just based on opinion rather than analysis of the numbers. The amount of damage I had to take to get the defiance bar to about the halfway point was extreme to say the least, and I didn't really have a chance to test defiance at this level per se as I found myself face down rapidly thereafter each time.

How about increasing blasters' defense/resistance against ranged attacks and maybe reducing the number of melee attacks in blaster secondaries-force them to stay at range where they operate best.


 

Posted

So I’ve been testing with my Blaster Armaiti is Level 50 she has Energy Blast and Energy Manipulation with three Melee attacks she uses. She also has Temp Invulnerability 6 slotted along with Hover and Maneuvers to boost her defense along with the Portal Jockey and Freedom Phalanx Reserve Member. You can read most of our test results here.

On to the issue of Defiance, Armaiti’s build is by far not optimal; I designed her to be well rounded. To test Defiance we ran several of the Shadow Shard missions, we also wanted to see how effective the map changes were.

What I found out was that the Inherent Power is too unreliable to be something a blaster should count on. Just trying to get into the range of Defiance can be fatal. The most I could raise the bar without immediately dying was about 25% of the bar, I think this is the 21-30% heath at +80% damage. I did see the bar go higher but combat was fast enough that I could not fire off a shot when my health dropped into this “prime range.”

I should qualify this in saying I only did the needless death once just to try it. The rest of this comes from running the mission with a Controller friend of mine. Even with him locking down enemies if my Defiance bar was over half way I was dead before getting off a shot.

When running the missions detailed in the link provided I think out of all the testing I can recall three instances of my Defiance bar being active.

My suggestion is like others have proposed raise the entry level of Defiance. If I were to pick a starting point I would say 55 or 50% of life, raising the final tier of the power to 10%. I believe this would make a great of enough impact that blasters would see the defiance bar more often but not want to count on its first Tier and allow for the Blaster to get off at least one attack before being knocked out. Another option would be for the final three Tiers of the power add a Resistance Bonus perhaps 10, 15 and 25% to slow down the damage long enough to get a shot off.

Thank you and I hope you take this into consideration as you prepare for I5 to go live.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
In case you didn't read what the devs have said, although stealth has been weakened, blasters have been given more defensive powers in their secondaries.

[/ QUOTE ]

Really. Which new powers are these? I don't see any new ones offhand.

[ QUOTE ]
You also now have a limit to the number of enemies a single attack is allowed to hit. Blasters have been more than upset about this, but fail to notice the increase to thier survivability this causes. When fireball only hits 14 guys, and the other 14 don't get hit, only half have even noticed you now. That's half the aggro (in this case). Buckshot may only hit 10 guys or so, but that means only 10 care about your presence.

[/ QUOTE ]

You don't quite seem to know how aggro works. More than just the targets that you hit can be affected by aggro. An entire spawn group can be affected by aggro if you just hit one of them. The more damage in the blast, the more aggro you will generate.

If there was a group of 28 (probably a mix of several groups actually) and you hit 14 with an AoE blast, you'll likely aggro all 28 of them. If you manage to eliminate the 14 in the blast, you'll still have the other 14 firing back at you.

Personally I'm not concerned about that though, since I don't attack more than the projected AoE limits anyway.

Defiance is arguably helpful. I'm not sure it deserves it's own bar along with health and endurance, but it can be interesting to watch at times. The increased hit points will probably be more helpful.

The improvements to the secondaries might be even more helpful, depending on what they might be, if and when those ever come about. I hope they don't get dropped in priority due to defiance and the extra hit points.


 

Posted

We're making some tweaks with Defiance in the upcoming patch.

It is not getting a major overhaul though. Just tweaking the defiance so it starts to kick in earlier. The overall buffs posted earlier are staying about the same (getting only slightly better), but you will be recieving a damage buff earlier in your health bar now.

This will be reflected in the Defiance meter as well. We've made some tweaks to that as well.

I want to stress that you actually can end up being buffed over 500% with Defiance. (500% is the max buff for Blasters) This actually does nothing except protect you from damage debuffs.

This is one of the rare instances in Issue 5 where a solo character is able to reach a cap without help (or inspirations).


Positron
Follow me on Twitter

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
This is one of the rare instances in Issue 5 where a solo character is able to reach a cap without help (or inspirations).

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, I think you can say that they received help, just perhaps not the kind of help they wanted...

Scorus


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
We're making some tweaks with Defiance in the upcoming patch.

It is not getting a major overhaul though. Just tweaking the defiance so it starts to kick in earlier. The overall buffs posted earlier are staying about the same (getting only slightly better), but you will be recieving a damage buff earlier in your health bar now.

This will be reflected in the Defiance meter as well. We've made some tweaks to that as well.

I want to stress that you actually can end up being buffed over 500% with Defiance. (500% is the max buff for Blasters) This actually does nothing except protect you from damage debuffs.

This is one of the rare instances in Issue 5 where a solo character is able to reach a cap without help (or inspirations).

[/ QUOTE ]

After playing around with it a bit I had been thinking that it would be a little better if the buff started a tad earlier. The protection against damage debuffs is a nice touch too, that feels kinda heroic, like you're giving it your all and the bad guys just aren't going to stop you if you can help it. Well done on the tweeks here.

Are there any plans for other inherent powers? They seem to give a lot more flavor to the ATs.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
We're making some tweaks with Defiance in the upcoming patch.

It is not getting a major overhaul though. Just tweaking the defiance so it starts to kick in earlier. The overall buffs posted earlier are staying about the same (getting only slightly better), but you will be recieving a damage buff earlier in your health bar now.

This will be reflected in the Defiance meter as well. We've made some tweaks to that as well.

I want to stress that you actually can end up being buffed over 500% with Defiance. (500% is the max buff for Blasters) This actually does nothing except protect you from damage debuffs.

This is one of the rare instances in Issue 5 where a solo character is able to reach a cap without help (or inspirations).

[/ QUOTE ]

Posi, nice power design and all---but really, I won't be using this power on my 50 Fire/Fire blaster, ever. Well, not intentionally. The moment I'm in the yellow, I'm popping heals or if out, I'm running for the door. If a team-healer type plays around with me trying to boost up my damage by letting me hit low health, then I'll quit the team and run for the hills (never to group with said experimentor again).

Sorry, but I truly feel you should give this power to Scrappers. They like living on the edge like this. More power to em, so to speak.

Blasters, OTOH, need something much more logical and substantial. The HP buff and damage cap raise (we did get one, right?) are much more logical and 'blasterish'. Thanks indeed for those.

Nice try, tho

Cal2


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
We're making some tweaks with Defiance in the upcoming patch.
It is not getting a major overhaul though. Just tweaking the defiance so it starts to kick in earlier. <snip>

[/ QUOTE ]
I stand by my earlier post. Defiance is a nice thematic ability but in no way addresses the concern of L30+ blasters. (L30 used because that's when mobs start to show a lot of status effects and ability to one- or two-shot blasters. Adjust that number up or down according to your experience.)


Skip
My Char. List and Market Transactions
HeroStats Developer
Legion of Valor
Iron Eagles

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
All this crap from someone who dosen't PLAY a blaster.

Defiance is worthless. none of your gobbly [censored] changes that.

Not that it matters.... a damage buff isn't what we needed anyways.

How about playing a blaster into the late game and then come back here and make those lame [censored] assertions. and those MINOR controls and defenses you speak of? When compared to what others have IT'S NOTHING. And since I've played three archetypes into the late game my experience trumps yours 6 ways to sunday. Blasters pay WAY to much for too little extra damage and the illusion of range.

[/ QUOTE ]

Er, um, Hepheastus is correct (though needs to display a bit more tact heh): try playing a Blaster from 0 to 50, then tell us what we need. Until then, alas, you know not wherefore you speak.

Cal2


 

Posted

Unlike most blasters, I think Defiance may be... Overpowered. We'll have to see. That's a heck of a lot of buffing, there. And you're making it even MORE worthwhile?

Is it too late to make a blaster suggestion?

Why not let us just have a power that extends the range of our attacks and does a minor resist debuff? An innate blaster power that let's us Total Focus at 10 feet, Blaze at 40 feet, cast Bitter Ice Blast at 70... More or less letting us double are range.

So we can actually BE ranged. Even our melee attacks could have a ranged component (like KO blow).

Personally, I expect massive issue 6 nerfs for defenders and blasters when it becomes clear that tankers and scrappers have no real role in the game.

Teams of blasters and defenders (with some controllers for spice!) are going to dominate issue 5.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
We're making some tweaks with Defiance in the upcoming patch.

It is not getting a major overhaul though. Just tweaking the defiance so it starts to kick in earlier. The overall buffs posted earlier are staying about the same (getting only slightly better), but you will be recieving a damage buff earlier in your health bar now.

This will be reflected in the Defiance meter as well. We've made some tweaks to that as well.

I want to stress that you actually can end up being buffed over 500% with Defiance. (500% is the max buff for Blasters) This actually does nothing except protect you from damage debuffs.

This is one of the rare instances in Issue 5 where a solo character is able to reach a cap without help (or inspirations).

[/ QUOTE ]

Positron you can tweak this power all you'd like and it won't change the central flaw in it.

Blasters can't afford to fight with lowered health. We go from green to dead too fast.

Btw most of us don't carry Enrages to buff our damage anyways. by the late game we got 20 break frees because in your wisdom you developers loaded the late game with status jacking mobs and got rid of our chief protection from them... Disciplines.

We can't even afford to carry lucks anymore unless our powers give us a modicum of control.

In the end you guys should just drop it. The only thing that this defies is common sense. You've weakened the tanker. He'll require more attention from dfenders now. they'll just shrug and say the hell with the blasters.... they'll do more damage if left unattended. Dead blasters deal no damage.

This whole Idea is counter intuitive and ultimately a waste. You can tweak a turd into eternity but it'll still stink.


 

Posted

Oh, and what did defenders get?



Ouch....was that a stick you just shoved in my eye?


 

Posted

Child you can easily recall what mezs you and using your blast powers take it out before you get mezzed. You don't need to use breakfrees unless facing boss type mobs or a lot of mezzers in the same place. Sappers bah one snipe and boom. Keep out of melee. Most mezzes post 30 only last a few seconds.

In a team you would have status protect from the various defender and controller powers and due to firing off powers when taking dmg defiance would play into that. You would get dmg and fire off defiance enhanced blasts.

Don't need to have the cons and defenders hold off on healing.

A blaster is artillery meaning fire at range and hard at the threat to you and range mezzers are the threat. Lts, most blaster primary and secondarys have stuns, knockbacks, even some holds.

Sheesh I rarely die to mezzers as a blaster. Hell the dual boss pairs were the problem. Dual lt toned down bosses no contest.

Don't like being stunned or having to selectively think for two milliseconds about what to target or how to use terrain and your powers then play a gung ho scrapper.

Edit. Real tired when I wrote this. If you cannot figure out what I wrote then you need English Compositon courses and boost your ability to decipher sentence structures that are inherently complex but appear simple.

If you are being one shotted you are engaging mob groups you shouldn't. Purple minions in melee will one shot you.
Red lts in melee will one shot you. Red bosses in melee will one shot you. Orange bosses that critical in melee will one shot you.

One shot kills are perfectly avoidable use insps. Defiance is very usefull. If you have to run as a blaster you are already doomed. Running away while mobs are blasting doesn't help a blaster on live. On test with defiance kicking in it is wonderfull. I died less then four times past level ten to sixteen fighting vhaz, cot, outcasts. Heck defiance will allow my blasters to solo on invicible once they hit SOs.


 

Posted

I would have to agree that Defiance only looks good on paper, but fails to impress in the game.

Unless you plan on having Defiance kicking in at 99% health and then scaling up, the power is pretty much useless. In all honesty, when my health hits 50% and lower, I am not trying to go toe to toe anymore, I am looking for an escape to run and regroup to.

If my health is in the yellow - I definitely dont stay and fight, and would very much run at that point.

Trying to say you can increase our damage by X% at low health is just not an option to addressing the blaster issues.

A better idea would be to have defense scale up instead of damage. With higher defense towards everything (including AOEs) it would allow us to run away better without getting shot in the back.

May I suggest that you glance the Blaster forums and study the tactics used there. Very rarely you see blasters stating how they went "toe-to-toe" with some boss or AV.

Personally, my best times when I played was when I was able to use Super Speed while fighting. If I got into the yellow/red, I could actually get out of range before I took that fatal hit.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Posi, nice power design and all---but really, I won't be using this power on my 50 Fire/Fire blaster, ever. Well, not intentionally. The moment I'm in the yellow, I'm popping heals or if out, I'm running for the door. If a team-healer type plays around with me trying to boost up my damage by letting me hit low health, then I'll quit the team and run for the hills (never to group with said experimentor again).

Sorry, but I truly feel you should give this power to Scrappers. They like living on the edge like this. More power to em, so to speak.

Blasters, OTOH, need something much more logical and substantial. The HP buff and damage cap raise (we did get one, right?) are much more logical and 'blasterish'. Thanks indeed for those.

Nice try, tho

Cal2

[/ QUOTE ]

Totally agree. Over lvl 25 or so a Blaster is either dead or happily blasting away. If the healthbar does drop they're either running, being chainheld, popping insps or dead in the next second.

Defiance is a scrapper power.


 

Posted

If you really want to make Defiance workable, add status resistance to it once your health goes red. That way we might actually get to USE it every now and then, since in the 40+ game a hurt Blaster is generally a held or stunned Blaster. Who cares how much damage you do if getting hit even once means auto-debt because every attack has status effects that last longer than your life bar?

Okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but not by much vs some enemies. Having magnitude 4 or so status protection while below 25% health would be a FAR more useful form of Defiance than extra damage. At least then we might be able to wake up and run away before dying!


Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name

[u]Arcs[u]
The Scavenger Hunt: 187076
The Instant Lair Delivery Service: 206636

 

Posted

I still think Defiance is *exactly* backwards.

Low level Blasters, the ones most likely to be at low-health and not insta-killed, are the only ones to benefit from this effect, and they have the least need for it. At the levels where a Blaster begins to faceplant excessively, he is being one-shotted consistently, and with the reductions in Pool defenses, that problem is only going to be *worse* post I5.

Blasters could make better use of an exactly reversed version of Defiance. Instead of the power being useful when he's dying, it would give him a damage buff on an alpha strike. He'd target a mob and sit, his Defiance meter (change the name, obviously, perhaps to 'First Strike') would slowly start to fill up. At any time he can fire, but unless he waits, his 'First Strike' bar would remain empty.

Basically, the power would only be useful on the initial attack, since he will rarely have a chance to stand around, otherwise. If he is attacked, the bar immediately empties, his concentration is broken, the power stops building up, his aim is lost, whatever.

So even someone trying to use Phase Shift to sit out a part of combat while he 'powers up,' wouldn't be very successful, since he may well take damage between turning off Phase Shift and cycling his attack, losing the 'First Strike' bonus.

Plus, IMO, it would reward more intelligent tactics, carefully approaching enemy forces and setting up ambushes and the like.

Defiance, as designed, is a reward for getting your butt kicked, and that makes no sense.

It's not like Blasters need another 'I'm getting my butt kicked' meter...


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Unlike most blasters, I think Defiance may be... Overpowered. We'll have to see. That's a heck of a lot of buffing, there. And you're making it even MORE worthwhile?


[/ QUOTE ]

I'm just wondering, have you played on Test?

Here is the way it works.

Once your health gets really low (like 40% I think is the number the devs say, but it's been more like 30-35% from the looks of my health bar), you start earning defiance for EACH time you are hit. That means that you have to take a bunch of hits to move the meter up to that 500%. . . AFTER you are at 33% or lower.

Any sort of heal (inspiration or power of any rank) kills the Defiance meter completely. . . back to 0.

So it really doesn't get used often, and in the higher level game it really isn't used. Blasters that take damage that low are reaching for health inspirations immediately because not doing so would equal xp debt.

In a game with experience debt, this kind of archetypal power isn't that useful in PvE. .. However, I think the idea is to use it in PvP and I can see it working dramatically well for a blaster that is grouped with a Sonic Defender (sonic defenders can buff damage resistance. . . this means the blaster might be able to take as many as 5 to 10 hits after getting that low in health before dying and could conceivably fill their meter).

However, for those NOT playing with a Sonic Defender, it means getting an occassional slight buff to damage when your health is really low.

I can totally see every blaster respeccing into any and every damage resistance pool power though. If we could survive 5 hits after getting low enough that the meter starts working, then we could probably get at least one attack off that has like a 100% damage buff.

Oh, btw, forgot to mention. Each power you cast ALSO drains a point on the Defiance meter, so you have to KEEP getting hit while at low health over and over for it to go up. The highest I've seen my Defiance meter get filled (with a lowbie character that can take more hits even) is 1/3.

I'd really love this power AS IS if the game didn't have xp debt. I think it will be a fun edition to PvP too. However, I'm really glad they are moving up the time when it starts going up because that means we might actually get use out of it when we aren't lucky enough to group with a Sonic defender.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
...I want to stress that you actually can end up being buffed over 500% with Defiance. (500% is the max buff for Blasters) This actually does nothing except protect you from damage debuffs...

[/ QUOTE ]
So, if I'm understanding this correctly...that means if you have an attack slotted with SOs then Defiance does little more than hitting Build Up plus Aim, and a damage inspiration or two...even if you're almost dead and at the +500% tier.

This means that Defiance isn't nearly as good as it "sounds" once you have an attack fully slotted with SOs. Before level 22 when SOs become available, yes, Defiance could be a great buff, but after you have SOs it isn't doing half what it "claims" to do. If you are using the typical 1 ACC/5 Dam slotting then Defiance provides marginal additional benefit at 10% health and no additional benefit below that. With five SOs you are near 300%, which means that you won't get benefit from the 320% or 500% tiers, unless you are under a damage debuff.

In that case, Criticals are much better because they provide true double-damage, whereas Defiance NEVER will provide double damage once you have SOs.

I was under the impression that Defiance could get you over the cap. Obviously I was wrong...so Defiance just got a LOT worse in my eyes.


 

Posted

"I am sooo going to hurt you when this hold wears off!" blaster.

"You're all better now Mr. Blaster" hospital nurse.

"Aw man! I was going to use defiance!" blaster.


 

Posted

Defiance sounded good but like most blasters correctly speculated doesn't help in the 30+ game. While it is a boost in the low levels, blasters didn't need help there.

Oh Doc's point about messing up the "AT" balance.

Took two samples on live and test a week apart.
Live
Warshade 2%, 2%
Peacebringer 3%, 3%
Tanker 20%, 21%
Scrapper 22%, 21%
Defender 17%, 16%
Controller 15%, 14%
Blaster 21%, 23%

Test
Warshade 1%, 1%
Peacebringer 1%, 3%
Tanker 10%, 10%
Scrapper 8%, 10%
Defender 35%, 23%
Controller 10%, 13%
Blaster 35%, 40%

The goal of I5 is kill as fast as you can because no one can take the damage anymore. This looks like the old days when blasters were 50%+ of the playerbase.


[ QUOTE ]

Personally, I expect massive issue 6 nerfs for defenders and blasters when it becomes clear that tankers and scrappers have no real role in the game.

Teams of blasters and defenders (with some controllers for spice!) are going to dominate issue 5.

[/ QUOTE ]


H: Blaster 50, Defender 50, Tank 50, Scrapper 50, Controller 50, PB 50, WS 50
V: Brute 50, Corruptor 50, MM 50, Dominator 50, Stalker 50, AW 50, AS 50
Top 4: Controller, Brute, Scrapper, Corruptor
Bottom 4: (Peacebringer) way below everything else, Mastermind, Dominator, Blaster
CoH in WQHD

 

Posted

Hooray! Post-count reset! Now I can point out, at length, just how accute the case of cranial-rectal inversion Archon099 is suffering from is....

Nah. No real need in pointing out the ridiculously obvious.

Instead, I'll limit myself to dealing with the obviously ridiculous. Defiance is getting tweeked. Uhm, yay. There's an old saying that can't help but spring to mind here, "You can polish a turd all day long. But at the end of the day, it's still going to be a turd."