OK, that's one of the two things I asked for after my testing, namely that it kick in earlier. But for the love of God, it's worthless without one more thing. Nearly all the time that my blaster is below 40% of his health, what it really means is that we're up against things that nobody in the group can hit reliably. It doesn't need as much of a +ACC buff as it gets in +DMG, but without some kind of associated +ACC buff, it's almost never going to change the outcome of a losing fight.
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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).
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Interesting. Despite the outcry here on the boards, I've been playing and there have been a few situations where Defiance was noticable, especially to a number-cruncher like myself. In PvP, defiance is VERY noticable, which is a lot of fun as a gameplay concept -- I'm hurt but not down, everyone else better look out! Although a wounded man is typically the initial target. Ah well.
I'll have to see the revised numbers to really judge, but I'm going to have to slightly reverse my first post -- I do see a late-game use for Defiance; it's just not as staggeringly powerful as it is in the beginning.
i must say that defiance is an absolutly great idea, heros get stronger when they need to pull out of a bad situation.
that being said this does almost nothing to really help blasters survive, because by the time defiance becomes a real boon you hiting pavement soon there after. blasters need a boost to their surviavbility, and while defiance makes sense in comics it doesnt work as well in a game when it comes to actually saving the hero.
Now if defiance some how allowed the blaster to have the option of clicking a pop up that appears by the defiance bar to grant the blaster an ability similar to unstopabble for say 30 seconds instead of 3 minutes then that might help them survive. now thsi would turn you into a tank mage for 30 seconds but after that you hit 1 hp and 0 end recovery for another 90 seconds seconds perhaps and defiance would require say a 15 minute recharge that is unenhancable.
I am an ebil markeeter and will steal your moneiz ...correction stole your moneiz. I support keeping the poor down because it is impossible to make moneiz in this game.
Ok, so the revised numbers may be nice. It depends on how they scale and how early it starts. Lord knows that past the 20s the only amount of defiance I'll be wanting to see is whatever I'd get in the 50%-100% health range.
My problem is that, as far as the AT abilities go, it makes little sense for Blasters. I mean, really. Tankers get punch-voke, an aibility that enables them to gather more aggro. Scrappers get criticals that go off more often against higher 'ranked' mobs, helping them go up against bosses and the like. Controllers get that containment thing (or whever you call it) with the doubled damage on controlled mobs, I believe they also can critical hit with their controll effects, gaining extra magnitude (I could be wrong though). If both controller abilities are true, they gain better controll and the ability to solo (finally). Blasters get a (significant) boost to damage the closer they get to being defeated. This allows us to deal more damage, if we're not allready buffed by a team/inspirations/aim/build up, and are able to keep from being defeated in order to deal the damage without being healed.
So my question is, why is it that the rest of the ATs special abilities either don't require any special aciton on the ATs part (scrapper/tanker) or sync well with power the AT uses anyway (controller), while the blasters power requires them to take large amounts of damage ... something they historically don't do well.
As it stands Defiance is something most blasters (past 30 or so) would end up using as a random suprise when the enemy they're fighting manages to hurt them but not defeat them, not as something they'd plan for. It's just not something that meshes well with the AT. Why not just port over the blaster ability from PvP if you must give us something, lower the extra damage if you must, it'd fit better than defiance. Any number of things would. It's a nifty idea that went to the wrong AT.
MA Arcs: Yarmouth 1509 and 58812
Lowering the trip values is cool, but you could just scale them up later on because the current values aren't really a problem early on (like, sub SL12), but I had to take a header off a building on test (The Deflyance Manouver) to even see the Defiance buff as it currently exists (on a side note, the ensuing Nova only hit 6 of the 8 council agents (-9 lvl) I landed on), otherwise, I haven't gotten a noticeably 'defiant' shot off in a mission with either my 33 AR/Enr or my 39 Enr/Ice on test. Still, unless these go up substantially, I certainly won't be looking to take advantage of it on live, at least intentionally, a defiantly unconcious blaster is no help to anyone, although with the damage reworking (cross over info from the ice tanker thread) and mob acc reductions maybe I will see some defiance yet, I'll keep testing as soon as we get notified that the revised defiance has gone to test.
I'd prefer to drop half of the damage boost (Really, what needs +500% damage unless its unslotted for damage? if this is the case, it's not really an attack you're going to reach for when the chips are down?) and get half of that drop back as an accuracy buff, so the scale runs up to +125% Accuracy and +250% Damage at the top end, because missing is a huge -Damage right when the buff is *meant* to be supplying a significant +Damage, like the defiance meter (and your health meter) is showing, please.
So in other words... "well we made it start a bit earlier, but Working as intended"... Well, guess new players'll blast through the hollows faster than ever.... hope they get a chance to learn how to play before they reach the levels where it stops being any help... I was worried this would be the case...
Look it IS a great idea... for tankers. This still won't be much, if any help to us, especially now that our survivability tanks if we attack OR get hit. Seriously; defense, or resistance, or even just MEZ protection instead of more damage... These are what we should've seen.
Please understand; past the low levels, defiance means little more than "woo hoo, I don't have to carry those two reds with me to hit the cap, I just have to let myself DIE to do it".
Even by upping the thresholds, its just plain bad tactics for a blaster, and while with higher thresholds it might have come in handy if it were simply added to our current I4 defensive capabilities (well, sometimes, maybe...), many of these options have been reduced (halved or eliminated in many cases).
What blasters needed were MORE survivability options. I recall this was *acknowledged* by you guys, supposedly after seeing how despite loading up on pool powers like we weren't supposed to HAVE to, we were still dying in droves compared to our teammates.
Being able to cap out our damage when we can already come close enough with a handful of inspirations (well you'll probably say no one should be forced to carry inspirations to function, but then we'll just respond with the letters of the week: M, E and Z) is of very little interest or value to most of us. Sure they all got weaker also, but we also did. Not by as much in direct numbers, but we didn't have much to begin with, unlike some of the others. They got hit harder, but we weren't spared.
The HP increase is found by various bosses and many Lt's to be laughable (and by this I mean they laugh, not us), as in some cases the defense loss means status quo, while in others it greatly outweighs the HP boost while minions now hit us more than ever thanks to their untouched accuracy.
I sincerely hope you will not look at the disparity between blasters and destroyers/corruptors (bad with names, sorry) and think "well we'll just have to tone these guys down, blasters with defiance simply can't compare to this" ...
I know I'm touching different issues here but we can't just look at things one little item at a time. When we do that, we fail to understand how these interact, and work together to create more dead blasters.
RAISE us up to par... don't bring everyone down!
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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?
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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.
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I didn't know any of this stuff... is this accurate?
This does take away the idea of playing constantly in the red by having FF/Sonic bubbles and popping Lucks.
As far as I'm concerned, the Defiance issue is dead. It's a nice little addition to the game, but I'm never going to play with it in mind. If I get the buff, great; if I don't, no biggie. I'd much rather they spent their time fixing broken stuff rather than adding this sort of marginally useful thing, but since it's already here I'll take it.
The Alt Alphabet ~ OPC: Other People's Characters ~ Terrific Screenshots of Cool ~ Superhero Fiction
His information was dead wrong as that is not how it works at all. Most of the people here kill me. They introduce a new unselected, unchosen, unslottable power that you never have to worry about if you don't want to, and all they can do is complain about how they don't like it. IT DOESN'T DO ANYTHING NEGATIVE TO YOU! Just don't worry about it. If it kicks in and helps you...great! If it doesn't help you...well you were no worse off before. I have several high level blasters and have zero problems in the post 30 game. For everyone complaining that they die every 2 seconds, get one shotted, or are chain mezzed all day long...I don't know what to tell you. Try some tactics. And for those saying to dump this power off on scrappers..it sounds like you're trying to play as scrappers anyway so I suggest dumping your blaster now before it's too late and rolling yourself a scrapper. I mean..they're getting new melee powers soon anyway so it won't be long before you have something else to complain about.
"His Imperial Majesty's Minister of Restraints and Leather" -LHF
Two naughty acronym teams / Ascension / Convenient / Artic and the Chillz / Fap / Other teams I can't remember (sorry.. mind is goin')
Yeah, I think a lot of you folks are misunderstanding the point of defiance. Don't roast me, this is just my opinion...
I've played with Defiance extensively on test and I think many of you are confusing the purpose of this power. Most of you seem to be assuming that defiance is meant as an "offensive" bonus to blasters but it's really not. It is in fact a defensive bonus.
If it were an offensive bonus I would agree with you all that it is a very... disapointing addition that we don't really need. Too dangerous to use with any real efficiency or consistancy as an offensive tool.
But it's not an offensive boost, it's a defensive boost. Let me explain...
I have a high level blaster (3rd main) and my wife has a high level Empathy (her 3rd main) and we often duo as a pretty effective team. She's a great healer but in the past and on live it is often a race for her to keep me alive.
I steal or assume aggro of a high damage mob, it begins striking me for serious damage, She starts healing me and now the race is on... can she heal me and keep me healed faster than the mob can damage me? Let's say it's actually 2-3 mobs... can she keep up with the heals while they lay into me? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
Don't get me wrong, she does a great job but sometimes the damage is just coming in too fast for her to keep up and keep me alive. I do my best to help reduce the amount of damage I am taking by... you guessed it, dropping as many of those mobs as fast as I can so they stop killing me.
Now, on test I can honestly report that in my experience I live longer and survive MUCH more consistantly. The fact is that once I am hurt, as she is throwing heals my way as fast as she can, I am wiping out the offending attacking mobs much faster once I've entered the danger zone of having taken aggro and damage.
In the few seconds where my health drops to the danger level, just before the heal lands (or while it's recharging for her) I am suddenly and thankfully dishing out considerably more damage. And guess what, I'm dropping the mobs that are attacking me considerably faster when Im wounded. This means that when the heal lands the next heal is not nearly as critical to come in seconds later because... wheras on live I would prollly STILL have the same 2-3 mobs on me... on test I've dropped 2 of them with my added damage... leaving only one left to deal with in surviving.
This is what I mean by it being a defensive power. Solo is the same story. On live I have a boss or lieutenant taking my health down in chunks... while I take theirs down in small pieces. On test, the mob is still taking me down in chunks but now, just before he can finnish me off, my damage goes through the roof and I end up finnishing him off much faster and surprisingly I end up dropping him first. I may have only a sliver of life left... but I'm still alive which is more than I could say about the same scenario before defiance.
So yes, while defiance functions like an offensive boost, it's real primary purpose is that of a defensive "oh [censored]! Must kill faster to survive" kind of bonus. Stop thinking of it in terms of "How do I use this offensivelty?" and more in terms of "Thank god defiance kicked in and I dropped that guy before he dropped me." and the power starts to make a lot more sense.
I don't know if all that above made sense, forgive me I'm only on my first cup of coffee here...
So, all Im saying is that as an offensive power defiance is really just meh. But as a defensive power, allowing you the the much greater possibility of dropping an attacking mob before he drops you... it seems to work out as such on test quite well. And means your healers are less worked trying to keep you alive when you're dropping the mob doing the hurting faster so they dont have to repeatedly heal you as fast and furiously.
Now, having said all that... the simple truth is that while I see the usefulness of defiance as I've described, it simply is not a fair trade off for our defense being so thoroughly nerfed. For the nerfs to Stealth defense and so on AND it still does not address the single biggest issue with playing a blaster which is being held/stunned/sleeped/feared and then one shotted or two shotted immediately after. Defiance can't help you when you're asleep.
So in the end, while defiance is... "nice"? It isn't anything to be excited about when compared to what we need, have asked for, and what we've lost in the release of I5.
In short... nice try devs, it's a pretty cool power... too bad it so widely misses the mark. Too bad you've made it's "OOO" and "AHH" factor pretty much nothing but a "/sigh" by the rest of the miserable crap being pushed in I5.
Thanks for listening.
I just wanted to chime in here with regards to all those who say defiance is a scrapper power.
This is an incorrect statement. First, simply look at /regen. There is no way a regen scrapper is going to be consistantly in low health in order to take advantage of said ability. Not unless this very specific situation occurs:
regen % < incomming DPS (health drops low), mobs are killed at an incredible rate to where regen % = to incomming dps (health doesn't change very much). This happens so very, very rarely. Usually /regen looks like this:
regen % < incomming dps = face plant, regen % > incomming dps = end fight at full health.
SR fares no better, while not being hit, SR isn't losing health, when SR does get hit, it is usually bosses or AVs, barring of course the few lucky lts or minions that land hits. Unless, there is a ton of AoE going off. In either of those situations SR is either fine, or dead.
DA and Invuln are the only 2 sets that I believe would actually be able to survice long enough to actually make use of defiance.
While I agree that defiance looks good on paper for blasters, the high end game is so different from the low end that I do not think blasters at the high end can effectively make use of it.
I really do think that the increase to blaster hps helped, along with the cap increase. I still say that blasters should not be rooted when blasting except for snipes, and would benefit more from an innate /ragned defense (that cannot be enhanced) that is starts off small small at 4% and increases by 4% for each 10 levels.
Something like:
Level 1-9 4% ranged defense
Level 10-19 8% ranged defense
Level 20-29 12% ranged defense
level 30-39 16% ranged defense
Level 40-50 20% ranged defense
Give Blasters those 2 things, toss defiance in the trash.
Random ideas for defiance (might have been posted before but I'm too lazy to read the thread):
Let the defiance buff remain for a few seconds after a heal. Adjust (lower) the buff a bit to compensate.
Let blasters defy defeat for a while. After reaching 0 HP, the blaster will get a few seconds to fire off some attacks before he drops. The "if I'm going down, I'm taking you with me" manoeuver, or as Khan put it: "From hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee." Nooooovaaaaa!
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I'll have to see the revised numbers to really judge, but I'm going to have to slightly reverse my first post -- I do see a late-game use for Defiance; it's just not as staggeringly powerful as it is in the beginning.
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And it seems to be, mid to late game is where blasters REALLY need it. That's where the baddies start one and two shotting you, or the lack of mez protection makes you a malta playtoy...
Don't have a blaster that's made it higher than 35, but have SG friends that have, I've seen em struggle, and I've buddied up my other higher level toons with them to help them on their missions (always helps to have a buddy to avoid sapper-cide.) It's scary how quickly they die at those levels. And kinda sad how often they have to avoid using their AoE's to be 'safe.'
Hey Positron,
Give defiance to defenders if blasters don't want it. We will take anything at this point just show us you know we exist.
How about adding a slight mez resistance to defiance? The higher the defiance the higher the mez resistance.
How about adding a slight mez resistance to defiance? The higher the defiance bar the higher the mez resistance.
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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.
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Does that mean it's just not getting an overhaul in this patch, or does it mean it's not getting an overhaul before it goes Live?
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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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I have an issue with this. Once Blasters figure out how to exploit Defiance (and they will), this will lead back to cries of Defenders not being needed.
But that is actually a minor point. My major point is this: Blasters are just as squishy as ever.
Nothing done in I5, including the lowering of villain accuracy, the boost in Blaster hp, or the introduction of Defiance has made them less squishy than on Live. This is because the universal lowering of Defense makes it all a wash (unless the Blaster was buying and slotting 0 Defense in the first place).
Neither I nor any Blaster I have teamed with on Test has felt an increase in survivability.
Give us Defiance if you like. Thank you. Blasters need something else as well in order to feel less squishy.
For instance, if all ATs got an innate slottable Break Free power with a long Recharge, that would leave the Blasters at the bottom of the Defense dogpile relative to other ATs, where they belong. Yet, it would increase their survivability against mezzers in both PvE and PvP. I'd trade the extra hps (which make NO sense, except as fuel for Defiance) for that.
Here's another idea that incorporates both the I5 hp Buff and Defiance. Drop Blasters back their I4 hp. But when Defiance kicks in, they get the I5 hp back as a Dull Pain-like Buff! This makes the extra hp make sense, and also addresses the theme of a Blaster clinging to consciousness long enough to throw that final devastating shot. It would also be more tactical, too, since you could also use the hp buff as a signal to run away while making a 'defiant' gesture...
Just...can you lose the Defiance bar somewhere? Watching that thing just gets you killed. I'd rather have I5 noobs going, "Whoa! How come I did so much damage!?" and thinking they have discovered some bug they are getting away with.
As another poster said: Instead of the Defiance bar, simply have it work like this: first Defiance buff when at yellow health, second at orange, third at red, fourth at flashing red. No need to mess with the UI, intuitive understanding of how it works.
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My vote goes to scrapping the whole idea. It's nice the Devs are looking for a way to help Blasters. This just isn't it. Pretty much everyone has agreed that Blasters, as they are, lag behind the other ATs in effectiveness. In I5 you give us a HP boost and decrease the accuracy of some of the enemies. This is then completely negated by the removal of what little defense we had (suppression of the pool powers) and the overall decrease in the ability of Tanks to handle aggro and Defenders to buff. So we're no better off than we were before.
Thus, the only thing in I5 that the Devs can call a general improvement for Blasters is Defiance. Sorry, but a damage boost that practically never comes into effect and almost invariably ends in defeat when it does is not doing me any favors. If the AT is lacking -- as Statesman himself has admitted -- then for heaven's sake, just give us some help! Is it really so agonizing to give us some improvement without kicking us in the pants at the same time?
Seriously, I'd much rather the whole idea be dropped than have the Devs thinking they've actually helped us with this.
Idioteraser said:
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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.
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I would have to disagree with you.
I am going to take a prime example to show you why I disagree with you - the Rikti.
Get 1 Lt (mezzer) in a mission (when soloing), and you can be held indeffinately if you don't have any Break Frees (which happens in Rikti missions, 'cause you end up using them all). In one of my 1st missions against the Rikti, I got the 1st badge for being mez'd M& held - and I didn't even have 10% of the bar filled before then.
With my Blaster's snipe with Aim & Build Up and insps I couldn't 1-shot him. And that's all you really get, 1 shot. If you miss or don't knockback/hold (good luck on that with Fire & Electricity), you're probably gonna be mez'd.
So saying that you can easily take a mezzer before being mez'd is not exactly true.
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Most mezzes post 30 only last a few seconds.
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While you may be right with this statement, chain-mezzing doesn't help. A mez may only last for, at most, 30 seconds; but when you get one on top of another in succession, you're probably not going to come out the door you came into the mission with.
StrykerX said:
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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!
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I completely agree. Well...almost.
I would suggest that the status resistance start when the health bar begins to turn yellow and then scale upward as it gets lower & red. By the time the status resistance hits red, the Blaster is either dead or it's too late for them to do anything of consequence (except, of course, in extremely rare circumstances).
Edit: fixed quoting box - at work, had to rush...sorry.
If Defiance was designed to address or in part address the later 35+ level damage scaling issue Blasters are concerned with I think you need to take a closer look at how this will interact with that.
In the early levels, a blaster's base damage is pretty good and mob damage is not as proportially high in relation to a Blaster's hit points. This will allow more flexible room in using Defiance for offense and defensive purposes. Also, since blaster at early levels are still putting slots into thier powers and only can add training enhancements to them, the increase benifit they will see from it will be proportionally much greater and more useable.
As levels progress and a Blasters powers fill out and better enhancements become available the benifit will be comparatively less. Further, as mob damage scales upward, the risk while at lower hitpoints becomes greater. The benifits of using and being able to use Defiance are much lesser.
At the Late game, being below 40% health for a blaster is asking for certain debt. Not only that but having fully developed powers often will let a blaster ride the upper end of his own damage cap for breif periods of time on thier own power, while not continuously, it is often enough to make a difference. Defiance will not be a significant factor at this level, and will most likely be avoided as debt conscious blasters will be scrambling for health and safety.
In effect, Defiance will further exaggerate the degree to which blaster damage scaling decreases at the higher level game. Defiance has made this issue worse not better.
Early level life for blasters will be much better for blaster with Defiance and later life will still be the same, with many blasters falling out as the dynamics between mobs and blasters shift.
While Defiance is a good and interesting power concept, it is not really made for blasters. If you can provide an explaination or reason for giving blasters this ability then I am open to hearing it, but as it is I think it has totally missed it's intended mark.
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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.
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My two cents on the usefullness of defiance:
I think blasters would rather have an awesome defeat once in a while, rather than having an awesome victory once in a blue moon.
"All that crap is grey to me, no XP." - Positron 5/15/05 8:36am . . . The world stopped and silence ensued except for the sound of a crying infant off in the distance.
"Everyone needs to chill the hell out." - BackAlleyBrawler 11/13/08 3:26pm . . . Geeks around the world stopped and blinked.
After playing my level 50 energy/device blaster, I didn't notice any difference due to defiance. I agree that, as a blaster, you run before life gets much lower than 40% at higher levels so the power is not entirely useful at those levels. Plus the bonus wasn't discernible. Since it is an automatic power it doesn't hurt but in it's current form it won't solve any of the blasters' problems. Respecing and taking more defensive powers seemed to help more.
So, where will the new Defiance start? I'd like to see it start kicking in at the same time as a blaster's panic instincts do - when the bar turns yellow. Glad to hear you're revising that bar, too. The redundant power boost sounds interesting as well.
Without going on a long tangent about people's tactics, suffice to say that I haven't noticed any loss of survivablility on Test - quite the opposite in fact. Hold your ground, devs!
Arc #41077 - The Men of State
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I think it'll be more reasonable with Defiance kicking in earlier, though added Accuracy would help even more. It doesn't matter how much damage a shot might possibly do, if it doesn't hit the target.
But personally, I have no intention of using Defiance on purpose. If I happen to get some benefit from it in a fight great, but I'd much rather be guaranteed I'd manage to outrun the incoming shots from the mobs left over.
I like my ice/ice blaster, and I'm not gonna stop playing her because she's squishy and I have to be a more careful player. I purposely picked a blaster when i first got COH because I like the idea of standing back and doing massive damage (though I've been dissapointed to learn that unlike we were descriped, we AREN'T the biggest damage dealers). I even don't mind that I'm extremely vulnerable to any mobs I aggro. I've learned to plan in advance before attacking, have some inspirations to pop, or know where the exit is and the shortest route to it. What does concern me is that I have so many powers in my secondary power set that are MELEE powers. Even my favorite of my powers, Ice Slick, is an up-close and personal power. My question is why are you encouraging an AT that was designed for range and with no defences to get into melee range with mobs? If we can't have defences in our secondary, why not more holds? I love the ice holds, i just wish there were more group holds. With the holds we can have a chance to take out the mob before it mezzes or takes us out. I think fixing things like this would be much more helpful than Defiance.
Idioteraser:Blistering idiots and those who get their kicks from slinging unprovoked insults need not post. Your comments are neither insightful nor practical. First of all, you are not guaranteed to have a defender or controller on a given team, so that point about status protection is invalid. Second, everyone who actually plays this game knows that you don't always see the mezzer mobs in advance...any misstep from a teammate can easily aggro one or more mezzers from a nearby group as well. Another invalid point is that tired ranged defense card you tried to play....that doesn't always work when the mobs have the same as or greater range than you. Your comment about one-shot kills being avoided by inspirations is just plain stupid...you can't have even thought that through when you typed that. Apparently you should avoid posting when you are "real tired." One-shot means you died in "one" shot...therefore no chance to use an inspiration. One last thought...It is generally advised not to assume that other players are stupid, incompetent, or just not as "good" as yourself. That is generally the mark of immaturity and/or someone who doesn't have a clue what he/she is talking about.
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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).
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Great and well. You do realize that now that you disabled our minimal defense, exposed us to large amounts of firepower due to Stealth suppression, and reduced our APP resists even further...you've left Blasters as squishy as we were pre HP boost?
Heph is right. My standard loadout packs no damage boosting inspirations. Why? Accuracy, emergency health, emergency defense (even more so now thanks to the defense reaming), a bit of Endurance recover, and twice as much Break Frees as anything else is my standard inspiration loadout.
Blasters deal damage real good. We just don't survive it well, and thanks to I5, we survive it even more poorly and now have the evil temptation of getting hit once and wanting to take advantage of our new "suicidal Blaster" power.
I get enough debt as it is. I wish my mez resist went up with damage, rather than my damage.
Defiance is me snapping free of the do-or-die hold that Rikti put me in and dropping his sorry rear end. Make my pain give me the ability to shake off debilitating effects-that'll make me a better Blaster, not a "Gee, you're hurt and held...and do more damage when you can attack....oops....you're dead. But it was a great damage buff!".
Have our resists go up to Boss level at yellow, +1 Mag for Orange, +1 more Mag for Red...but only last as long as we're that low on health. It'd give us a chance to escape but still has the risk- after all, if you heal, you might go right back into a mez without the pain focus.
The boosted damage cap is nice. Leave it at 500%. It gives us a good reason to pair with damage buffers, and stops giving them a reason to leave us bleeding to death because "Dude, you'll do more damage!".
And FFS, stop making us pincushions. A good Blaster is either not getting hurt, or he is red/orange from a lucky shot, or he is eating dirt. A skill that encourages Blasters to hump debt's leg like an overzealous dog is not a Good Thing.