[ QUOTE ]
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 ]
[/ QUOTE ]
No ofense, but you are sounding awfully bitter. The Devs have alreay said the next time there are going to be melee powers added. And taking results of population on Test is not a valid benchmark. Right now, new powers have been introduced in those areas, so people are going to log into the Test server to try them out. People are not going to log into a test server to try out the tweaks (as much as a NEW POWER), and people are definitely not going to log into the test server to try to create a permenante character. There are people on Live that would never play a blaster or defender regardless of powers or nerfs.
To truly measure this, wait till I5 hits the live servers, wait a week for the FOTM bug to go around and then regulate and I bet you will see a pretty balanced population again.
Personally, I plan to FINALLY make a Dark/Dark scrapper since they are giving a break on the endurance issue, and all my blasting days can wait.
[ QUOTE ]
This will be reflected in the Defiance meter as well. We've made some tweaks to that as well.
[/ QUOTE ]
Just wanted to put in my $0.02 about the meter: it's currently very un-intuitive, with it's 0-1.0 scale representing (I guess) the current degree of buff. An easier to use scheme might be to have the bar scale from 0-500, showing the current %age of base damage the blaster is out-putting (with the default position being 100/500). This would just show the Defiance related damage buff, but it would give a much better representation of how damage is being effected. A more complicated option would be to have it also reflect *all* damage buffs/debuffs, which would make the display of some use to all ATs.
"Trust me, it worked in the Simpsons." - Calash
So we're stuck with it. Oh well.
Like I said before, we didn't have to sacrifice much to get it, so we can't really complain. Help is help. And I can honestly say that MY level 50 Fire/Fire Blaster will try to make use of it. But then, I really enjoy using that Rise of the Pheonix power. Really enjoy using it. As in, going out of my way to suck up damage sometimes so I can use it.
If I were anything else than a level 50 blaster tho I'd look at this as a mildly nifty thing that happens just before I die and NOT something I should be actively seeking to use. And I think most other blasters will agree with me.
If it helps keep a single blaster alive in a fight then I guess it's worth it. On a more practical level though if a blaster notices Defiance kicking in it is time to use that escape plan they made before they began the fight, (the one every blaster over 30 forces himself to learn after much debt: mass use of heal, (either from a Defender or Inspirations), and then run like heck when heal runs out). Blasters that seek to use Defiance as a weapon will be something to fear, but they'll also be carrying around loads of debt.
Now people might argue that blasters by definition carry around loads of debt so there is nothing at all lost by using Defiance... but... well.... it's not funny.
Of course, playing a blaster is supposed to be different than playing anything else. Using Defiance will just make it really different. An "added challenge" for those of us who thought playing a blaster was too easy.
I can deal with it. But then... I REALLY like that Rise of the Pheonix power. It's too cool. (Plus debt is meaningless to me now, which is why I'm at 1.5 million or something. Very handy, that)
Please, get rid of Defiance.
Don't "tweak" it, don't "adjust" it. Just get rid of it.
In PvP (Arena) we have a very nice inherent ability that lets a certain percentage of our damage go un-resisted. Against someone with no resistance, it does nothing. Against someone with high resistance, it is a nice bonus, but not overpowering. Best of all: it's always on, and doesn't require us to be damaged to use it.
Why not simply give us this inherent ability in PvE too? You could tweak the percentage, of course, but it's already something we have in PvP, and it makes far more sense than Defiance does (you should never, imo, link a Blaster buff to the Blaster being at near-death/low hitpoints....that's more of a Scrapper/Tanker thematic thing, not a Blaster).
Please, this has caused massive uproar among Blasters, and is driving a further wedge between us and other AT's who now think we should be "happy we got Defiance", when in truth we don't want Defiance, didn't ask for it, and immediately starting posting how much we didn't want it as soon as word leaked out that it was being forced upon us. Seriously, before I5 hit Test, someone reported news about it from a Statesman public appearance, and we immediately started posting about how wrong such a power would be. Had you asked us ahead of time, we could have saved your team a lot of programming time and effort.
Please. Don't make us take this power. At least give us an option. I'd prefer "nothing at all" over "Defiance", and that's saying a lot. Critical hits ("bullseyes") would be nice, provided they were random, yet always available.
But please, don't force me to take Defiance, or any other buff that's linked to my HP bar. That's just wrong on many levels. Punch-voke is "always on". Scrapper crits are random, yet always available. Controller "bonus damage vs. held opponents" is always on. Please don't have our inherent ability be conditional on us taking damage, considering that most of us have worked our builds and our tactics around the goal of not taking damage at all (or minimizing the damage we take). It's just counter-intuitive.
Lightning Rod
<Guardians>
"I am certain that all CoX will be humbled by the might of the Lightning Rod." -Lady_Sadako
While I like Defiance in concept, I've been convinced that is in fact a Scrapper Ability.
At some point if you please give it back to the Scrappers and nicely ask them for our Critical's back, it would be greatly appreciated.
If you're going to 're-balance' the game with issue 5, do it right and assign inherent abilities where they belong. Scrappers would love the damage boost and Blasters will love an ability they won't need to be mostly dead to benefit from.
It wouldn't be unbalancing since Scrappers already do blaster level damage and have the same damage cap. This change would make alot of people happy. Regens and SR's are going to be operating at lower health levels in the post I5 game and this would be a real boon to them.
Centinull
Please do not give this to scrappers, whatever anyone says.
If I am in the yellow/red, it's only cause my heal is still que'd up, shadowmaul having a long animation time.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
How much earlier, Posi? 90% say?
Seriously, though, even tweaked, it's not gonna be much help in the late game, where we need it most. More damage is fine and dandy, but to override the instincts of any sane blaster on death's door, it's gotta be obscene damage, and guaranteed to hit.
Since we all know that's not gonna happen, could we get an Acc boost (without the roll-ovep bug, please 
) and maybe a slight bit of mag resist?
At any rate, regardless of any tweaks to defiance, please, please, please do something about the near total lack of utility and abundance of melee redundancy in fire manip.
Furio--Lvl 50+3 Fire/Fire/Fire Blaster, Virtue
Megadeth--Lvl 50+3 Necro/DM/Soul MM, Virtue
Veriandros--Lvl 50+3 Crab Soldier, Virtue
"So come and get me! I'll be waiting for ye, with a whiff of the old brimstone. I'm a grim bloody fable, with an unhappy bloody end!" Demoman, TF2
[ 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 ]
Good to see you're not trying to force teaming--for Blasters.
Well, as an Ice Blaster, I go for big game: bosses, AV's, etc. Freeze them, and then blast them. If the freezes fail, or somehow one gets free, then he can kill me in maybe one shot, two for sure. Defiance is not going to help me. If I survive the first shot, then I run! 'Cause I know the deathblow is coming next.
Maybe the developers want blasters to have to work to kill a handful of minions and a lt., in which case, Defiance makes sense. In a protracted battle, against greens, I can see it kicking in without me already running away.
I'd rather have a "Corbomite" option: just before I die, I explode and kill all around me LOL
2012 -- 35 years on the Net
[ 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 ]
Having it kick in earlier is certainly on the road to making it a useful power, but it needs to kick in A LOT earlier. I ran through an even-con CoT mission with my level 50 blaster trying to run him as a "defiant blaster" and found it quite impossible to garner any benefit from Defiance. I just let the baddies smack me around, waiting for any kind of movement on the defiance bar. Waiting....waiting.....waiting.....waiting.... Okay, now sweat is popping out on my forehead because the HP bar is doing that panicky flashing thing it does when there's just a bare sliver left and.... Behold! I have a buff from Defiance! I get exactly one shot off (which missed by the way) and then I die.
The original description of this power being used as part of an overall strategy by "defiant blasters" seems flawed. I really see no way to use this ability in any way unless you're current level < 10 after I5. At less then 10 you don't have to worry about debt so you can redline all you want (of course the walk from the hospital back to wherever will still slow down your progress).
It doesn't really matter to me if Defiance sticks around or not. It doesn't cost me anything to have it, and I'll never use it, so do what you like with it devs.
Oh and as for pawning it off on scrappers? It doesn't seem to me that it would do much good for them either. Unless defiance kickes in MUCH earlier, any AT trying to use will face plant soon after the Defiance bar starts to move.
>I really see no way to use this ability in any way unless you're current level < 10 after I5
This is exactly what I was thinking. At level 10, it takes a while to kill a small spawn of greens and blues. I bet the devs played to level 10 and figured: this makes sense. And it does; in a protracted battle against low mobs, it does make sense. I bet they never tried it at high levels, fighting stuff that can one-two shot you.
Devs: make it kick in the instant the HP bar goes yellow, and by the time your HP bar goes red, Defiance should be at full value. This won't help high-level blasters much, but it will help the lowbies a lot. Add Adrenaline Boost or something too, since true defiance gives you a huge shot.
2012 -- 35 years on the Net
Defiance is good vs Greens and Blues up until a suprisingly high level... buuut those are the cons you don't need defiance for. Buildup/Aim (or both) or any one of a number of /Devices tricks work just fine vs them.
Sure defiance would be useful if it kicked in at 99% or less hp (or 79% or less if we want to be -reasonable-... pfeh), but I'd much prefer the inherent power "Spite".
Spite: When the Tank goes down and all the aggro on the map goes on you because your Blastvoke hits many more targets than their Taunt at range, and your hitpoints are falling faster than a termite-gutted house wired with explosives that's on fire during an earthquake... your see the end coming as your life starts flashing before your eyes (and it's chock full of faceplants) and decide to go out in a blaze of glory. If you're going to die, you're sure as blazes going to take them all with you.
When your hitpoints reach 0 or less, you are given 10 seconds of total invulnerability to get into position before you explode in an enormous pbaoe burst of power that deals damage equal to your set's Nuke... at the damage cap.
Now -that- is an inherent power that I'd like. I know this is an inherent ability that's been suggested by other Blasters before, but I thought I'd throw it out again. Sure this power would have to be balanced so that it wasn't so overpowered for the early game, but other than that, it seems pretty suitable for the way blasters -are- played, as opposed to what the vision is for the way they're supposed to be played.
Arc Salvo: Okay hold one sec guys, we can't just rush in blindly vs these Nemesis, they've got these ranged aoe's tha-
Teammate1(charging in): Shut up, Arc Salvo, you lame*$% Viewtiful Joe wannabe! What do you know?!
Teammate2(also charging): yeah, ST#& arc salvo u PWR RANGR U!
Arc Salvo: *sigh*
[ 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.
[/ QUOTE ]
Meaning that blasters can jump off of shorter buildings for the damage buff now?
Thank you for making it better, now it may be useful in the late game 
[ 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?
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.
[/ QUOTE ]
My view of defiance is something that can not be done all the time. I know people are going to try to expoit it by being as close to death as possible, but you are still a squishy.
I've gone through about five missions with my blaster trying to absorb as much damage as I can, then popping a couple lucks, and I still die. Maybe on a team with a bunch of buffers I could live a little longer, but it's my expeirence that when you go red with a blaster, you are going down.
Defiance is just a nice little something to have, just like critical hits are a nice little something that scrappers have. It is not something that you can depend on; it's a "quality of life" change. I do not plan on using defiance on any of my blasters unless I'm going down and I know I'm going down; I'm going to try to take as many of them with me as I can.
Proud member of the LEGION, and Sisterhood
Positron this power is good for one thing and one thing only for me as a Blaster. It gets me to level 10 that much faster, other than that it's useless. On Test I've zipped a few new Blaster alts along nicely thanks to Defiance. I can play haphazardly and not care about debt. Once I hit 10 though it's back to the old method of hit and run. If my health starts to dip that low I am not sticking around to see if I can get that last shot in to finish a target off, I'm high tailing it out of there. Defiance doesn't help me all that much with my high level Blasters as I'm either alive or dead, there isn't much inbetween room.
What I'd like Defiance to be is a Mez/Hold protection that kicked in as my health dipped. Instead of boosting my damage ability, which I do nicely enough now thank you, make Defiance mean something to Blasters that protects our shortcomings, make it that we are defiant to any holds and mez headed at us. As the health sinks our protection grows. If I can fight I can live, if I'm held I'm dead.
The only solution I can see to Defiance would be to replace it with something more defensive based. When Blasters are <50% then we do not want to risk debt just to defeat a few mobs for a "chance" of surviving. As you can clearly see in any situation, once we get below 50% the risk of fighting off those minions is not worth their xp and inf reward. Statesman always talks about Risk vs. Reward type things, and Defiance clearly doesn't sum up to Risk Vs. Reward.
When a Blaster has 10 minions attacking him, he has 2 options. Try to take them all down with more than likely less than a chance of a coin flip of beating them all for 3000 total xp, with a risk of dying that gives him 100000 debt. See the problem here? The risk of dying with Defiance is NOT worth the reward. What I would suggest is something I made called Fortitude:
Fortitude for Blasters
for·ti·tude: (fôrt-td, -tyd)
n.
1. Strength of mind that allows one to endure pain or adversity with courage
2. A new auto-power that could be in City of Heroes that is the possible solution to the Blaster's Defiance problem
Fortitude is the real comic-book feel of how a Blaster would really like to feel when all the chips are down, you dig down deep and find a hidden reserve of power, enabling you to triumph over adversity. It even says this in the definition of Fortitude! The definition of Fortitude itself explains how Blasters need to dig deep in themselves. Also, the quote I just mentioned was from the Devs Themselves!. This will be most advantageous to heroes of the Archetype, who Cryptic developers found were most often defeated when they are about to defeat their foes.
So how will it work? When a Blasters health drops below 40%, they will begin to see an increase in their defence and protection from status-altering powers. A small increase at first, but the lower their health gets, the bigger the increase will become. This will significantly help Blasters who constantly find themselves on the losing end of battles against superior numbers. Now, the increase in these two areas will level the playing field and give them the edge they have been wanting for quite some time.
Of course, in order to get this edge, damage must be taken. This means that a player risks accumulating debt in order to get their damage buff. The reward for Defiance however was NOT worth it. Sure, you get 500% power and that might seem cool. However, when a Blaster got below 40%, there are only 3 options he has. Stay there and have a small chance at gaining the small amount of XP, find a way to get himself healed, or run. Naturally, Blasters would usually run. How is this comic bookish? The only solution would be to give Blasters 2 options that were equally weighed out with Fortitude. Stay and fight with higher defences and higher status protection, or run and withstand the fire being thrown at you for your strategic retreat.
The gameplay for this is both simple and complex. A solo Blaster will find that by keeping his health in the Fortitude range, he will become more powerful and defeat foes without dying quickly, but he must manage his aggro very well. Getting too many attackers on him can spell certain doom for a Fortituding Blaster. A good solo Blaster will carry lots of small Health inspirations for emergency situations where it looks like he is about to be defeated. These will increase Health enough so that he wont get defeated, but not so much that he wont have to work at getting back into Fortifuding range.
A grouped Blaster can use Defiance even more effectively. When all looks hopeless, the Blaster is given two choices. Deal with the opponents with higher defence and status protection, or run.
(Fortitude definition from www.dictionary.com. Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.)
Hope you like it! I am sending this to Positron and Statesman by the way!
EDIT: Oh, and I know Fortitude is a power in the Empathy set...I just think that it fits the Blasters inherit-power TOO WELL to pass up.
[ 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 ]
Can you seriously come on this board and think that defiance is a great power for blasters to get? Seriously? This is just setting the precedence to not heal a blaster so they can dish out more damage. And considering how fragile blasters are in the late game, there isn't a blaster with half a brain who will let their health fall if they can avoid it. Try playing a blaster in its 40's and you'll see. Get off the designer pedestal and see the game from the player's perspective for once.
You want to help blasters? Give them/us a secondary status effect defence power. We would much rather have that than this useless defiance crap.
Please Devs
Don't tweak Defiance. If it's staying in it's current state, get rid of it. Its interesting, but going in the wrong direction.
Yes, it's nice yer tryin' to give blasters some love. But I don't believe encouraging more potential debt is the way to go. It's not going to be heroic for a lot of people. I suspect its going to lead more often to team arguements / dissentions / more debt (especially in PUG's), or just be wholly ignored.
Blasters are squishie. In the 30+ game, encouraging them to 'remain damaged' for a damage buff is insane, as they can be capped so much easier by the mobs than their lower level brothers and sisters.
So far my attempts to consciously use it with my lvl 35 blaster has been laughable. The best use of it has been an occasional 'oh hey, I think I got some defiance on that shot before I ran.' Nothing big, because when I get at 40% or less, I'm usually running for cover. When I let my health get in the red in an attempt to capitolize on the extra damage, I'm faceplanting ALOT more than normal. Not worth it.
PLEASE consider some alternatives!
Some could be:
* Increasing damage resistance + mez protection as we get hit. When pushed into a corner, the blaster get tougher. While it's still unlikely we'll stay around for very long when hurt badly, it could make us viable scrappy/scary damage generators when pushed into a corner. Just don't make the scaling resist godlike at the 99% damage end or people will TRY and figure out how to abuse it. Just enough so we might stand there and try and take the baddie out before popping greens/running.
In fact, I REALLY like that. Something that scales up SOME level of resistance. After all, most blasters have a lot of melee powers in their secondary. Blapper builds are going to be limping badly right now, with a cut in effectiveness to the fighting pool. But why not give a REASON for giving the uber squishie all that hand to hand stuff in the fire/ice/electrical/energy secondaries? If we had some sort of defiance that made us physically tougher when badly hurt, wouldnt that just make us a little happier with our secondaries? And overall?
*Make buildup an inherant power for all blasters (yes, that means you'd need to replace it in just their power sets, not defs.) Give it more omph. If you really like the defiance thing, make it so that it is increased even more based on what their current defiance rating is. Thus, it's still be possible to go over the cap given the situation.
Last but not least, I'd really like if I had an aura effect going when defiance was 'on' (maybe I do and I'm just missing it because I'm so intent on watching the status bar) and that aura effect should have something to do with my primary power type. Swirling ring of fire, shards of ice, blue flecks of energy, etc. Ideally brighter/broader/thicker so that you could easily tell when the buff/damage is getting good.
Lots of people have posted some good ideas of for Defiance... please consider some of the alternatives.
Still never plan on using it and certainly not going to ever try that strategy the devs suggested about asking healers not to heal you. That is asking for death and debt.
By accepting what is and making the best use of every situation, life can be fulfilled without a constant demand for more.
--Wen Tzu
[ QUOTE ]
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."
[/ QUOTE ]
LOL Ohms I just love the way you put things. As a mainly non-blaster player I defer all of my opinions to Ohms. 
He's one of the best blasters I've ever played with (wouldn't mind playing with you again) and certainly knows the game well. So, yeah, what he said.
What nobody's mentioned are all the Defiance exploits already being used on Test. (I won't mention them here, but I've bugged 4 already.)
If the devs don't change it radically, they've just created another way to PL.
This shows, once again, how clueless the devs are as to what the players are doing. Apparently it takes them 16 months to figure out that people with multiple pets are "too powerful" and that herding is bad.
Wonder how long it'll take them to figure out that Defiance is exploitable, and come up with an idiotic, drastic solution which does nothing but ruin people's fun?
---------------------------------
Heartbroken
I lurked a lot but I'll miss you allAlpha Team sg, Pinnacle server
Black Citadel vg
I think you guys missed my post (especially you genericcleric ) If you want to see it out of the Eye-Hurting Quote Box, then just go to the end of Page 32.
[ QUOTE ]
The only solution I can see to Defiance would be to replace it with something more defensive based. When Blasters are <50% then we do not want to risk debt just to defeat a few mobs for a "chance" of surviving. As you can clearly see in any situation, once we get below 50% the risk of fighting off those minions is not worth their xp and inf reward. Statesman always talks about Risk vs. Reward type things, and Defiance clearly doesn't sum up to Risk Vs. Reward.
When a Blaster has 10 minions attacking him, he has 2 options. Try to take them all down with more than likely less than a chance of a coin flip of beating them all for 3000 total xp, with a risk of dying that gives him 100000 debt. See the problem here? The risk of dying with Defiance is NOT worth the reward. What I would suggest is something I made called Fortitude:
Fortitude for Blasters
for·ti·tude: (fôrt-td, -tyd)
n.
1. Strength of mind that allows one to endure pain or adversity with courage
2. A new auto-power that could be in City of Heroes that is the possible solution to the Blaster's Defiance problem
Fortitude is the real comic-book feel of how a Blaster would really like to feel when all the chips are down, you dig down deep and find a hidden reserve of power, enabling you to triumph over adversity. It even says this in the definition of Fortitude! The definition of Fortitude itself explains how Blasters need to dig deep in themselves. Also, the quote I just mentioned was from the Devs Themselves!. This will be most advantageous to heroes of the Archetype, who Cryptic developers found were most often defeated when they are about to defeat their foes.
So how will it work? When a Blasters health drops below 40%, they will begin to see an increase in their defence and protection from status-altering powers. A small increase at first, but the lower their health gets, the bigger the increase will become. This will significantly help Blasters who constantly find themselves on the losing end of battles against superior numbers. Now, the increase in these two areas will level the playing field and give them the edge they have been wanting for quite some time.
Of course, in order to get this edge, damage must be taken. This means that a player risks accumulating debt in order to get their damage buff. The reward for Defiance however was NOT worth it. Sure, you get 500% power and that might seem cool. However, when a Blaster got below 40%, there are only 3 options he has. Stay there and have a small chance at gaining the small amount of XP, find a way to get himself healed, or run. Naturally, Blasters would usually run. How is this comic bookish? The only solution would be to give Blasters 2 options that were equally weighed out with Fortitude. Stay and fight with higher defences and higher status protection, or run and withstand the fire being thrown at you for your strategic retreat.
The gameplay for this is both simple and complex. A solo Blaster will find that by keeping his health in the Fortitude range, he will become more powerful and defeat foes without dying quickly, but he must manage his aggro very well. Getting too many attackers on him can spell certain doom for a Fortituding Blaster. A good solo Blaster will carry lots of small Health inspirations for emergency situations where it looks like he is about to be defeated. These will increase Health enough so that he wont get defeated, but not so much that he wont have to work at getting back into Fortifuding range.
A grouped Blaster can use Defiance even more effectively. When all looks hopeless, the Blaster is given two choices. Deal with the opponents with higher defence and status protection, or run.
(Fortitude definition from www.dictionary.com. Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.)
Hope you like it! I am sending this to Positron and Statesman by the way!
EDIT: Oh, and I know Fortitude is a power in the Empathy set...I just think that it fits the Blasters inherit-power TOO WELL to pass up.
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P.S.S. Oh, one more thing. This means that you can't be perm-held to death. It would make more sense. Tanks and Scrappers have their armor for protections from being held, Defenders and Controllers (along with controlling before being controlled) have their buffs, and at this point...Blasters have nothing. Imagine being perm-held until 30% health when you reach deep inside yourself and break free and beat the !@#$ out of the one holding you. Truly Comicbook worthy...
P.S.S.S. Argh! one more thing!!! Ok, this would also give us a reason behind our melee attacks. When a foe is beating on you up close while you are mezzed, you can break out at around 30% and give him the !@# whooping of his life! THINK ABOUT IT!!!
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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).
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So the new strategy will be:
1. level up to 18, which will be easier with this power, especially as there will be no debt up to level 10.
2. Get the ring of pain temp power and keep that contact until you wear it out using it to keep health low and the %500 cap always on.
3. Level up to 25(easier with the ring of pain)
4. Get the sky raider/rikti mission that gives the manifold resonator, self stealth -hp.
5. Continually use these powers to deal massive alpha strike damage with buildup and aim and aoe powers.
unbalanced much? Up until the mid 30s blasters will be damage machines, always at low hp, always dealing severe damage with their base attacks, why even slot their attacks until that point?
After that what? What is there after 35? I'd like to know as my main is a level 37 blaster and if it wasn't for phase shift I'd die much, much, much more.
I wish this had been presented as it clearly is, a way to balance blasters with the upcoming CoV expanshalone archetypes.
Those archetype get inherent abilities to reduce aggro, increase damage as they battle, etc.
Almost all COH archetypes have an inherent ability like these, criticals, punchvoke, greater percentage leadership buffs, so it was probably already a planned addendum, not to 'help' blasters.
I don't see this power offering any help to blasters post 35, I don't think it was ever planned to. I wish there was something like the CoV inherent power for the scrapper-types that reduces aggro, but that doesn't really fit the blaster concept.
I'm still going to throw out there blastfear, possibly the lower your health the more chance of you 'scaring' mobs with the awesome power of your blast, maybe just the raw energy confuses them or something.
Just enough for you to get away, because post 35, if we're in the defiance zone, we should be looking for a sign post up ahead that says exit.
-Ink
Inkblaster - 50 - NRG/NRG
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Defiance is a scrapper power.
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Please stop trying to pawn this power off onto scrappers.
Just cause you dont want it doesnt mean we do.
About the only class that might want it I think are Tankers, and then you would have to trade them punchvoke for it.
What? You dont want punchvoke on a blaster? Thats crazy!
*Edit*
You know what my grandfather used to always say?
There aint no good end to a <insert another word for poop here> stick.