Though I like Defiance conceptually, I'd rather not see a mechanic that buffs based on low health. I think a mechanic that will lead some Blasters to believe they are better off not being healed is a bad thing. And a mechanic that will lead some support ATs to believe a Blaster is better off without a heal sounds like an insidious scheme by Lord Recluse to divide and conquer Paragon City's heroes. :P
If it sticks around, I think the bonuses should be significantly lowered so that Blasters are not tempted to seek low health. Being buffed by Defiance should be something viewed as happening in the natural course of play and not something you build into your strategy.
Great concept, though I too think the bonus begins a bit late. A sensible blaster is already checking out possible escape routes at 40% health. And in my experience, once my health gets to 25% or below, I'm almost invariably doomed anyway. Unless, that is, I pop several green inspirations -- which eliminates the Defiance bonus. While I'm glad for any boost to my blasterness, and the hp boost will certainly help, I'm not terribly excited by what is basically a reverse Vengeance (i.e. a power that is only really useful when I'm going to be defeated anyway). A 500% boost to damage is meaningless when it only happens in such a miniscule window of health. If I'm at 5% health and I'm facing one more minion who's nearly defeated, then a 500% damage bonus is ridiculous overkill. If I'm at 5% health and I'm still facing multiple enemies, I'm going to the hospital regardless.
Could the power instead kick in at an earlier point (at 50 or even 60%) and then increase at a more gentle slope? I could forsake the huge bonuses at the end in exchange for some modest bonuses that happen at levels where I might actually find myself and still survive the battle.
Testing and opinions fo Defiance.
hero subject - lvl 30 eng/eng blaster
location - brickstown.
Fought varrities of mobs and noted the following things.
Bug/Issue:
The health bad does not visually move with actual HP loss. When the HP bar showed just a sliver(5% +/-) I was not at even at 1/2 defiance. This is becasue my actual HP was at 200~of my normal 800~ thus really 20%.
Opinion after 1hour of testing on mobs in bricks and IP
Defiance seems like a cool concept but its not something I will ever try to use. With the blasters complete lack of defence and low HP in relation to other AT's, Using Defiance is just not worth the risk that it requires.
Personally I think the concept would work better if we got a small def buff as we got low. I posted the following in the thread in the testing forum.
[ QUOTE ]
Make defiance be a defence buff I'll use insps as a way of describing my idea.
I can't recall the name of the def insp's that are bigger than the "luck" insp so I'm calling them luck+ and luck++
=>40% Health: no buff
< 40% Health: def buff = 1 luck
< 30% Health: def buff = 2 luck and 1 luck+
< 20% Health: def buff = 2 luck and 2 luck+
< 10% Health: def buff = 2 luck,2 luck+ and 1 luck ++
< 5% def buff = 2 luck,2 luck+ and 2 luck++
Then use icons to show the defiance status the same as any other power. Using icons has 2 uses: 1) we can see out lvl at a glance 2 our teammates can see were in defiance and we can preplan with the healers how to respond at any given level.
I think this is a better way to show defiance for a blaster it gets harder to kill us the lower our health gets. Given the way luck's work its not as much def as not getting hit. Wh ich would make since that we'd try harder to not get hit as the health goes down.
[/ QUOTE ]
I'll just echo what's being said, post 35, this will not help.
Solo blasters can pick their fights, and may be able to strategize their damage to have this help.
But, in groups, if a blaster is taking damage, whether it be AOEs or a stray mob, this power will not help enough to save them from more debt, and it will encourage support archetypes to ignore them as they're supposed to take damage to be more powerful.
Hitting hard just before you faceplant is little comfort compared to just faceplanting. I vote for an acc buff, aggro lessening, or mez resist in place of the damage increase.
-Ink
Inkblaster - 50 - NRG/NRG
[ QUOTE ]
Personally I think the concept would work better if we got a small def buff as we got low.
[/ QUOTE ]
I agree. We could call it "desperation," which is more in line with how most blasters feel when their hit points go down to 40%. When we are getting that close to death, being more offensive is not usually a top priority.
On Defiance:
At low levels, Defiance is -incredible-. At that point, attacks aren't slotted, and the boosts that are received at that point are far and away better than anything else available. Defiance turns an igniomous death into sure victory, as long as the hit lands -- an element of suspense and triumph. In fact, Defiance at low levels is likely too powerful -- it exceeds anything available by such a margin as to overpower Blasters in the early game. This lasts until about level 22.
HOWEVER:
In the 22+ game, with attacks boosted by SO Enhancements, Defiance becomes increasingly less influential, and less worthy of player attention, and Mobs become much stronger in their offense against a rapidly depleting Blaster HP Pool. With the changeover in scaling at that point, it becomes obvious that Defiance is still mildly useful, but proportionally it will not save a Blaster in the same way it did in the pre-SO world. Furthermore, the further a Blaster advances in level, the weaker the Defiance ability becomes, so that in the endgame, it's only useful if left at 20% HP or less.
My solution to this: have Defiance boost BASE damage, not ENHANCED damage. This would work much like the Kheldians' Interspacial Link powers in application, save that Blasters need to stay at a decent 100% damage point. To do this:
100%-40%: normal damage.
40%-30%: Damage boosted by 10%, base.
30%-20%: Damage boosted by 20%, base.
20%-10%: Damage boosted by 40%, base.
10%-5%: Damage boosted by 70%, base.
5%-1%: Damage boosted by 100%, base.
In the early game, this will allow a Blaster to exceed his limits without shattering the game engine with a 500% Melee attack (far, far more than what the game can adequately account for with the Mobs as they are). In the late game, this will make Defiance a still-worthy addition to a Blaster's arsenal, and give them a significant advantage in the Damage realm. It will make them respectable in PvE, and will let them not be written off in PvP.
[ QUOTE ]
I have this to say about Defiance....
Above level 40, the rate at which one's hitpoints can drop from 40% to 0%(even with the I5 HP boost) is so fast, that Defiance really has little discernable effect.
[/ QUOTE ]
Quoted, because it's what I was going to say almost word for word. At the lower levels, Defiance seems to be a decent little boost, but nothing to write home about. For my lvl 50 blaster, I could never get it to do me any good whatsoever.
Thank you.
I just don't see how useful this can be. In the early game it can be useful because you go red it doesn't necessarily mean you are going to die. In the upper game it just isnt enough. I died trying to test it.
I made my life as a blaster avoiding damage. I think we should keep the cap and just raise Blaster Base Damage a bit. This would be a start but finishing it would mean tweeking both primary (speeds in some sets)and secondaries (utility in some sets) as ive proposed multiple times.
You can have the HP boost back if you do this.
I agree with the assessment of most people that this power has almost no utility past the early levels. For much of the game it is just too dangerous to let your health fall and stay at a low enough level to get much benefit from defiance. Statesman's suggestions of strategy to take advantege of defiance seem in direct contradiction to all the other changes proposed in Issue 5, which are leaning toward a more aggressive emphasis on team work.
However, I like the feature conceptually and would like to see it remain in an altered form. My two suggestions for this are
1) Damage buff scales from much earlier on:
90% health = 2.5% bonus
80% health = 5% bonus
70% health = 10% bonus
60% health = 15% bonus
50% health = 20% bonus
40% health = 40% bonus
30% health = 80% bonus
20% health = 160% bonus
10% health = 320% bonus
1% health = 400% bonus
2) Defiance buff remains on a short timer (or limited to the next attack only) even if the damage is healed.
Or even some combination of the two options, although the second is probably preferable as it does not invalidate the roles of defenders or the timely use of inspirations.
My brief testing of Defiance led me to the following thoughts;
1) I hate the bar. It squishes the Endurance bar awkwardly. Just get rid of it. A Scrapper doesn't get a 'Critical meter,' I don't think Blasters need a seperate bar telling them how badly they are getting their butt's kicked...
2) It seems like it would be most useful at levels 1-20, when incoming damage can rarely one-shot a Blaster. Exactly the levels when my Blaster was a god and *didn't need anything.*
At the higher levels, when a single return volley could send me into the dirt, Defiance wouldn't do a darn thing.
It's designed exactly backwards, IMO. Extra Alpha Strike potential, some sort of bar that builds up and gives me up to 20% extra damage for standing near a mob and 'aiming' for that one initial strike before the mob starts shooting back and it all goes to heck in a handbasket, would be more useful to me at higher levels, when it becomes a matter of who hits who first and hardest.
As I am sure many people have mentioned Blasters have at 40% HP are often one hit away from KO so the helpful advice in the introduction to Defiance about managing your HP to get maximum effect is a little less than useful IMHO.
When this gets you extra damage it will be nice, but I don't see it as something that you can manage, much like Criticals.
Unless you are using a "drop from a great height and nuke" tactic, which seems a little less that heroic.
regards, Screwloose.
"I am not young enough to know everything."
How to Look Stuff Up Yourself - It's Fun and Easy
Looking for Powers Numbers try City of Data.
For Fraks sake read the Guides and FAQs
Global Chat Channels - Australia
I would just like a clear dev description of the defiance bar. It seems that, once you get it full, even if you don't do any damage or regen your health, it starts shrinking down. And the fact that you can use it up seems weird.
Is defiance a "limited affair" where you get the damage boost for only a few powers even if you remain at that hitpoint level?
It should be that you REMAIN at that damage buff point as long as you remain that low at health. From a concept point, a blaster doing more damage while the chips were done wouldn't suddenly stop doing damage while the chips were still down only because he's already done 2-3 attacks.
Current Badge Hunter: Plot Device (Rad/Thermal/Dark) - 1,268 Xbox Live: Friggin Taser
King of Electricity, Lead Inmate running the Carl and Sons asylum, the "Man" behind the Establishment, Given Honor in Hat Form By Paragon City (Favorite Forum Poster 2006!), Master of Ceremonies of the Fair Use Law podcast
This is a portion of the PM I sent to the devs in regards to blaster defiance.
I tried my level 29 Energy/Energy blaster, street hunting in Independence Port and Talos Island. I like the Defiance power. It's pretty nice, but it's a bit buggy. I think that it should increase in direct proportion to the decrease in hit points. The way it works right now it's kind of pointless, since when you get to the point where it can really boost the power of your attacks, you're pretty much going to die from a strong wind before you can get any shots off anyway. If Defiance increased steadily as hit points decreased in direct proportion, it would be a LOT more effective. As it stands right now, you don't even have a 20% defiance boost with an amount of hit points that a green conned minion can one-shot you. It looks like you need to have less than 5% of your hit points left to get the maximum Defiance boost, and blasters never survive when they're down to that little amount of HP. They won't live long enough to fire one last salvo. If you've got a defender in your group always healing you, then the power is kind of pointless since you'll never have a low enough HP balance to increase Defiance substantially.
I did extensive testing with my level 36 blaster (eng/eng) over the weekend. What I found is at her level once she hits the area on the health bar that activates Defiance, she is already dead. I had hoped I'd be able to get off a 'parting shot' at least, but activation times, villain attack speed, alignment of the stars are not in my favor. I have NEVER lived long enough to profit from this idea. Very disappointing, especially in light of the loss of any defense I had gleaned from Stealth.
Just for grins I rolled up a new blaster, and Defiance does seem to be helpful in the early levels. But where my main is now, no. I am going to respec and keep trying, but her rising debt numbers are driving me to consider shelving her.
Okay, I've worked this post over a bit, but this is what I seem to have found:
First, I kept track of my health percentages when grouped with one partner on LIVE. The only two times I got below half health in about 4 hours of play I was in serious danger of death and defiance would have made absolutely no difference. The only way I survived was by popping several health inspirations.
So I went to test and tried it out.
In a situation of trying to use defiance and keep it on, even at very low boost range, I found the following:
(Tests made at level 28)
When fighting +2's and higher - getting below 50% = death even when just fighting minions. Defiance makes no difference, extra HP made no difference. If I used good tactics I could take on three +2 minions and they never got me below 50%. If I purposefully let even one minion get me below 50% I was risking death.
When fighting +1's and evens - It sometimes allowed me to shoot one less time to kill something if I purposefully allowed myself to get beat down before I took my first shot, but if I was beaten down by a group of them then I was in danger and the defiance didn't make much difference. I survived or died on healing inspirations alone.
When fighting -1's and lower - The impact is negligible. In groups large enough to be a threat defiance doesn't really help.
The more I think of it the more it seems that a lot of these results are due to the nature of combat damage. Since the number of shots to kill is actually much more important than the damage done, at least in solo and small groups, the Defiance needs to make a significant change to my damage before I notice a reduced time to kill. In other words, the minion still took 3 shots even when defiance kicked in.
Suggestions:
It depends what the purpose of Defiance is. If Defiance is just meant to give us something neat then you can leave it the same. It will help us at times but most higher level blasters (About 20+ I guess) will ignore its existence because its really not worth it to get low enough health. After all, a single +2 melee minion can do 40% damage to me so getting to 40% is just asking for it.
If the goal of defiance is to make a change to help blasters, especially at higher levels, then some changes really need to be made. Try these ideas:
- Start defiance from the very beginning... any health less than 100% results in a boost, then scale the boost linearly up to the current max, but have that max reached at about 30% health rather than 5%.
- Add an accuracy boost to blasters
- If you don't want to give accuracy, give blasters an edge in getting past damage resistance. This would especially help higher levels when fighting +2 and +3s.
- I couldn't tell for sure, but I'm fairly positive that defiance is boosting our damag pre-slotting (Like other damage enhancers)... if so, consider changing the defiance boost to be boosting our post enhanced damage. <-- Anyone know this for sure?
I guess my biggest question though is... what is the goal of Defiance? How should it help us? If it's really intended to give blasters a boost then it has to be something that rewards good play. Good play with a blaster, especially in a group, means not getting hit... so it wouldn't come up much.
Thanks!
First off, I love the idea as it is right in line with comic book themes and it makes the Blaster class require even more "strategizing" than ever before.
I tested this on my level 50, and found it was not very useful. As has been stated, if you get in the red you are dead. There is just no way to effectively use this power in the 45+ levels without face planting more often than not. Perhaps upping the point at which it starts to kick in would help (at like maybe less than 50% health you get a 25% buff or something). That way at least we get to use it a little before we have to pop a green Skittle. Also, it was fairly useful against certain groups, like Nemesis on PI, but try it in the Shadow Shard and enjoy your trip back to the Firebase medics.
I also tested it at lower levels, and it does indeed rock! You are not the victim of mass mez and 1, 2, or 3-shottings, so you can milk the danger zone a bit more and really lay out some firepower. All told, this will be a huge boon for lower levels, so well done.
To conclude: Love the idea and the execution and impact it has in lower levels. Upper-levels (45+) it will really not be useful as much, so perhaps a slight increase to the point you get a buff (around 50%) would at least give higher-ups a taste of Defiance sweetness.
I like the idea for defiance but it just doesn't seem to work when we're at higher lvls.
I took my lvl 41 fire/fire/fire blaster and tried using it (in shadow shard and nemisis missions on heroic), found I could barely get to the +40% by holding back my panic, and ended up dieing because the enemies were still on me and pounding away even at range. This proved to me that going out of my way to use it will get me killed.
I then tried playing normally in a Malta story arc and I saw +40% once in five missions and only got to use one fireblast before my six slotted health kicked in and got rid of the +40%.
I then tried it with an archery/devices blaster. When trying to use it, I could get to +80% pretty easily but I couldn't bring myself to get hurt further because of my 'blaster instinct'. Then I played normally and could use +40% frequently and got to 160% once which actually saved me.
My results of all this is that, like others have said, defiance doesn't help the late game problems blasters have. If there was no bar, I wouldn't know it existed when I play my lvl 41. It does boost low lvl blasters but we rock at low lvl anyway.
Now I would like to see it kick in a lot earlier, around 60%-70%, and an acc boost would help make sure it could save us but I won't even be sure of that unless I got to test it.
So overall, defiance is a good idea but it needs a lot of tweaking for the higher lvl blasters to see any effect. As it is right now, it doesn't change how I play at all.
I suppose defiance does everything you Devs meant it to do: it makes it look like you're giving blasters a damage buff without reallying giving us a damage buff. Blasters don't really need a damage buff though I do think some sets could use a bit of love.
I really would have prefered a bit of range.
PS: I've recently discovered the joys of Blapping--made possible by controller friends. Bear in mind that blapping is very, very safe with controllers around (and a bubbler helping out).
So don't go to far in the anti-melee stuff. Giving blaster really hard-hitting melee attacks makes us WANT to team with controllers.
I think defiance and criticals between blaster and scappers should be switched. With a serious lack of defesive ability riding hitpoints too low says a blaster should stay out of battle, not push harder. The added damage of defiance draws more hate to the already weakened blaster thuse quickening his/her demise. Thus definace becomes a blockade to the good old tactic of a strtegic withdrawl.
On the other foot, scrappers leave the battlefield much less regularly and low hitpoints means even more for them to take the mob down fast. So defience would suit them better.
Even if that is not an option then it would pay to have definace kick in earlier, say 60% instead of 40%, that will give Blasters the extra oomph they need but not having to hover in danger to have it.
Just my opinion,
Umby
Level 50 Assault Rifle / Devices here.
As many people have suggested, Defiance simply kicks in too late to be of any intentional use to blasters in the late game. When a strong hit from certain bosses can flat-out kill me, the -last- thing I want to do is put myself into hitpoint ranges that allow not only -all- bosses, but most lieutenants and some minions one-shot me as well. 40% HP is well past the point of panic for me, and I'm sure many other blasters as well.
Status effects, holds, sleep, etc. should also be mentioned, because they are simply so prevalent in late game that it is a very safe assumpthion that an AT with no lasting protection against -any- status (leaping/acrobatics versus hold excluded) will likely be affected by one or more such affect if they are taking and holding any amount of aggro over a small amount of time. No class should have to absolutely -rely- on a single inspiration type in order to survive common encounters, yet I -always- have to carry breakfrees on me. That's a gap in powerset design.
If I take a single volley of fire, putting my HP below even 70%, and I still visibly have aggro, I'm already either taking evasive action, chewing down defense skittles, or throwing up personal force field both to keep from taking more damage and to dump off some aggro in the process.
As many people have suggested on the cosolidated thread, IF you intend to use this "lower HP" = "more damage" model for a blaster fix, then there are several things to consider modifying. A lot of these are NOT my own ideas, or they are ideas that I thought of that have already been voiced by others. Now I am not saying implement every single idea here, nor am I even asking for any single one of these. These are just ideas that I agree with that could help out the Defiance ability.
1) Consider a complete overhaul of the "hp range" idea
1a) Make damage scale based on current HP per percent, starting at no buff at 100% and gradually increasing for every percent of damage taken. Even if the increments are small, it is still a benefit that can be used by blasters that play as I do, and may adjust my "panic" phase to be lower than 70% HP, as I would have a reason to keep firing at that point, and would still be relatively safe from immediate death.
1b) Base the defiance increase on -recent spike- damage taken. In other words, have it act like an ability that triggers at certain HP totals then functions for a set duration regardless of HP increases, but have it "upgrade" if HP continues to plummet. Make the damage bonus smaller to account for the fact that it will be much easier and/or simply more likely for blasters to be defiant for stretches of time.
1c) Base the increase on -recent total- damage taken. If a blaster gets hit with a volley that puts him at 70%, he gets healed one way or another to 100%, then the same volley drops him to the same 70%, then start building Defiance. One doesn't have to sustain a single large hit to be defiant, they could be equally defiant by taking a steady flow of damage. "Okay, enough already, time to end this."
2) Give defiance something (or several somethings) more than extra damage, even in a trade-off for some of that extra damage if necessary.
2a) A LOT of people would like to see accuraccy increase as the defiance meter fills. While targeting drone does that for me usually, I still can't fault this idea.
2b) There is a possiblity of adding status resist as defiance increases.
2c) This isn't directly related to Defiance, but making the blaster secondary pools more useful could indirectly contribute some usefulness to Defiance. As I said above, if I'm below 40% on my blaster, chances are I'm already well on my way to dead, and most likely held in the process. If blasters were given powers that provided even a limited amount of status resist, it would at least make it more feasible to function in low HP ranges, where currently getting held while low on health is a trip to the hospital, guaranteed. If the fear of such an end was reduced, it could be possible to choose to be defiant instead of pounding heals or hiding like a wanted criminal.
2d) With such a narrow amount of time that Defiance currently allows for significant damage increase (because you'll either die or heal within relative haste) consider expediting recharge rates of blaster primary powers as the meter fills. If I have two guys on me, either of them can kill me in a single hit, and full auto is down, that split second of Defiance isn't going to save me anything.
2e) Consider even adding damage reistance as Defiance increases. Nothing drastic, just a little something to help insulate us from debt and allow us to stay in the defiant range a little longer with a little relatively more safety.
3) The current Defiance meter is awful, plain and simple. You tried to make a scaling bar based on pre-determined ranges, and that quite honestly does not work.
3a) If Defiance will use HP "ranges" to determine the level of functionality, then divide the bar up into equal parts, one for each range, and have it fill as those are met.
3b) If Defiance adopts some other, more smoothly scaling, method of damage increase, then leave the bar as is, and have it fill accordingly as the damage is scaling.
3c) Brown and black are unattractive colors to gauge Defiance. This is more a quality of life issue than anything else. HP is green (then yellow/orange/red), Endurance is blue, Exp is purple. Make Defiance something similarly bright. Hell, make it the inverse of the health bar colors. Green for a short, not-very-defiant bar and bright red and flashing for a full bar.
3d) Another eyecandy nitpick, but if Defiance is made into something blasters can actually put to use, why not give us a little showmanship with it, similar to scrapper criticals. Make the word "DEFIANCE" pop up, or "PLUS X" with the damage tally. I want mine to say "BOOM, HEADSHOT!" above the damage number.
In closing, I see Defiance as having potential, but utterly useless as a real improvement to blasters in late game. It doesn't hurt us, but for 999 times out 1000, it may as well not even exist, either. If it is adjusted in some or many ways, it could have a lot of purpose and value to a blaster.
The basic problem that is simply too difficult and risky, almost to the point of unattainability, let alone sustainability, to get into Defiance mode and be able to do anything with it.
Sig will be out of date. I'm lazy.
[ QUOTE ]
When a Blasters health drops below 40%, they will begin to see an increase in their damage output. A small increase at first, but the lower their health gets, the bigger the increase becomes.
[/ QUOTE ]
Just adding to the overall majority. I tried to see what Defiance was all about with my level 50 and a level 2. I'm throwing out the level 2 experience....but I didn't see any benefit from Defiance at all on my L50. Didn't see that bar raise once. I tested it in the arena. I was constantly taking damage just to test Defiance and lost like 15 to 1. Not to be a smart [self censored], but if it worked above 50% hitpoints (at upper levels of course)...then it would be useful. In a nutshell...I think it serves no purpose on my blasters and will ignore the fact that the power even exists...if it goes live 'as-is'.
BUT I LOVE THE EFFORT!!!! Thanks for trying. Seriously.
I'll try to paraphrase my earlier thoughts:
1. I would never try to use this past lvl 10. Death can come so quick the higher lvl you go, its just not worth the bonus. Even with the debt decease and whatnot.
2. I can barely tell when it kicks in. Even watching the bar, it seems slow and in the heat of battle I won't look at it. Maybe a brighter color, the screen might shake, maybe the word "DEFIANCE" above our heads with the size scaling with the damage...something fun and cool so everybody knows we are being defiant.
3. I think 40% is too low. It needs to kick in sooner, even if the buff is low. Again, the buff isnt worth the debt.
4. The thing about criticals is that they get it no matter how much life, no matter ranged or melee...they get an awesome damage bonus, sometimes with no risk. I don't want blaster criticals, but the whole risk vs reward the way its set up for blasters is not equal to scrappers.
5. It is a cool idea, but it won't be appreciated or used in the mid to high game. Its just not worth it, with 40% to zero happening sooooooo quick. Please help this, because I want to like this so much.
It's a cool idea, but I don't see using it much past L10, at least not intentionally. I'd recommend you start it around 75%, maybe 60%, and simply make the bonuses more mild. +500% is all well and good, but by the time the cap is 500% (which it certainly is not at lower levels), every power will be slotted with a bunch of SOs anyhow.
How about:
<= 65%
+35%
<= 50%
+50%
<= 40%
+60%
<= 30%
+80%
<= 20%
+120%
<= 10%
+200%
<= 5%
+320%
As it stands currently on test, it's fun to mess with until L10, and then it feels... crazy. As something you use unintentionally, like "omg, I just went red; wow I'm glad my inferno is already activated", it's just going to come into play all of about twice in the average blaster's trip to L50. And let's remember that at 22+, a +40% boost is really more like a +18% boost since most attacks will be have 5 SOs. (And that's not counting the 6th SO that a */dev will have, or aim/BU, which gets a typical attack to 415% of the way to a 500% cap.
The power is fairly workable at low levels when incoming damage is low and manageable. With a bit of effort I was able to keep myself in the orange and breezed through a mission at record speed with my new archer. My higher level blaster it was pure lunacy to try to make use of the defiance because incoming damage can take me from 40% to 0% too fast. With 10 level of debt free its worth the effort, but not worth it if your higher level.
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
I love this power and concept in theory, however something seems to have happened in the execution that is causing problems. Routinely when I'm playing my blasters on the Training Room, I've been watching my Health and Defiance bars as I let myself get hit, and the thing I notice most often isn't the buff to my blasting or the ability to hit things harder if I'm more hurt...
It's the fact that there is now a *very* noticeable lag between getting hit and having the damage come up in my chat logs, and when the damage registers on my Health and Defiance bars.
We're talking a second or more, usually.
For me, this causes problems, because in an actual fight (One where I'm trying to *play* instead of *test), I play on the razor's edge, most of the time. I'll tend to glance up for a quick snapshot of my health, and the newly-introduced lag in the meter's updating may give me a misleading idea of what's gong on. A meter that's a second or two behind where my health is actually *at* does me no good in combat, since things go south for a Blaster so very very fast. A second in combat may be the difference between "I can take one more hit and stay standing, so I can finish him once my next power comes up" and "I'm dead in one hit, and my next power can't come up in time. I'm bailing *now*."