I would rather have a boost to recharge speed like a hasten with an endurance recovery buff. It's not damage that matters it is the fact that I am all out of stuff to shoot with or I have to wait for that darn attack to come up while I backpetal away.
Also as an Ice/Devices Blaster I can't imagine that Defiance works on my "pets" Caltrops, Trip Mine, Time Bomb, Auto Turret, Ice Storm and Blizzard. If someone can tell me that it works on those I might get more excited. Because as it stands I have 3 attacks that will get the "defiance"
At higher levels blasters are either dead or happily blasting away. If health drops to < 40% it's probably gonna drop to 0 in the next few milliseconds anyway.
As mentioned this looks nice in theory but doesn't work out so well.
-Edit-
Oh just noticed that Blaster Defiance is a Feature on the main-page. Looks like the decision is final and this entire thread is useless.
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Defiance works pretty well, but is very dangerous for a blaster. I recommend switching scrapper criticals and defiance around. It really sounds like something for a scrapper; and scrappers loose health slowly, where blasters loose it fairly quickly.
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Very good idea. Though in that case the effectiveness of criticals might need to lowered a bit since blasters generally do more damage than scrappers--and you might want to preclude the level 32 "nukes" from having criticals at all to avoid them being overpowered. But it could work technically *and* make sense.
Otherwise I'd be wary of relying on defiance as a blaster. When your health drops low, your best bet is to avoid the enemy unless you have an Empathy defender watching your back, or someone else can grab agro. Sticking around to fire off a few more shots, no matter how much improved, will likely get you a faceplant in 1-2 more shots, especially as you rise in level.
And defiance, as pointed out previously, does nothing vs. status attacks. As before, your only protection is to get them before they get you--something defiance does not address.
On another note, I find Monday's update about defiance very disturbing. First, the heavy emphasis on teaming (which I5 seems designed to force*). Second, and worse, the update presents it as a fait accompli regardless of the feedback we provide here.
*I enjoy teaming--the interaction with other players to me is the best part of the game. But I don't my option to solo taken away, and many of the changes I5 presents on the test server seem to favor teaming at the expense of soloing, *and* force players into class-roles all too similar to other MMOs. But that's a topic for another thread.
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I can only echo these posts. Scrappers can live in the <40% HP area a bit longer than Blasters. Is that the only reason you wouldn't want Scrappers to have it, since they would be preforming at a boosted level for too long? But I digress. Blasters should have criticals, except maybe on nukes, and scrappers should get Defiance. If 40% is too high, since scrappers do live longer in those low numbers, you could further reduce it as well. Given BOTH options, the should be switched. With just criticals around, sure it fits scrappers, hitting the right place on someone at the right time to get a KO, but now given a choice, the new one fits even more.
Just think of the street fighting hero type, beaten down and bloody. He sits there, takes a deep breath while sprawled out on the ground with the villain standing above him. He reaches deep down and becomes defiant, not willing to let everyone down. He springs to his feet and hits the villain square in the jaw and knocks him off balance. The hero can now wail on the enemy over and over again, each punch being more powerful now then if he was fully rested and just thinking he was going to win. All he can think about is avenging his friends and delivering swift justice to the villain that wronged him. He knocks the villain down and then stands over the body, defiantly, and waits for the cops/medics to pick him up.
With Blasters, with the lack of natural defense or resistance, would be better with Criticals. From an RP stand point, you could see them lowering their body temp more or rising it enough where their respective projectiles are colder, more solid and striking the villain in the face (which come on, would REALLY hurt more than the gut or leg, hehe). Overall you could think of the blasters aiming, or using a different type of "ammo" to land critcals, even with the two new blaster sets.
That's just the dream of a broken, and bitter man. 
I'm playing a L35 Fire/Energy Blaster, and defiance is frankly not noticeable.
In a very flawed situation (ghost ship got stuck in Talos) I was able to use it by dropping myself repeatedly from a great height - given the very low levels of damage being dealt by ghost ship passengers, defiance then seemed useful - the increase in damage was apparent (although, I like the idea of some positive indication that it's active)
in actual mission play/street hunting however... afraid not. It starts coming into play far too low, and ramps up too fast. In about 75% of the cases where I die, I am one-shotted by a volley of fire in response to an AoE like fireball.
Can I just add at this point, that I dislike the reduced accuracy of Bosses and Lts enormously - it robs the game of fun and any sense of urgency when I have (for example) a Freakshow tank standing on front of me... previously, I knew that one good swipe would possibly kill, certainly hurt me. Now I can stand toe-toe with a hugely armed bad guy with impunity as he swipes away in mid air at me. It removes any sense of danger, and therefore any sense of urgency to fight him.
I would *much* rather see them have their accuracy restored, but do a little less damage - in other words, the blaster defenses that we have been screaming for for months.
The ultimate solution to the accuracy problem would be to introduce a range element - someone standing fifty yards away should be less accurate than someone standing toe-to-toe.
As others have said, I find Defiance to be a great idea in concept, but the practicality just isn't there. Death for a blaster of any level is always a problem. This new power will simply encourage Defenders to heal less for more damage (Statesman even went as far as to seemingly advocate this.). However, the 40% limit simply doesn't lend itself to practial use for a Blaster.
At 20%-40% I'm usually running for my life or frantically mashing on my Inspiration keys. I'm not blasting away, and even with an increase in power I would probably heal over blasting.
I think widening the range of percentage effect, but lowering the boost would be a great idea. 500% is, in my opinion, overdoing it. There are more in-depth ideas in this thread that could make Defiance more practical, and great for the concept.
Craptacular. Blasters get 1 or 2 shotted. How does this power help them?
Don't get me wrong, blasters made out like bandits in this issue, but Defiance isn't going to help them at all in the levels were they were having issues. Ie the 30-50 range. They're either mostly alive or dead or mezzed. Mostly alive the power never activates. Dead the power is obviously useless. Mezzed its useless as well.
How was this supposed to help the blasters again?
The early game that was easier when you couldn't get easily one shotted just got easier for them. This did absolutely nothing to change the problems they have in the late game.
Sailor eX
"Not in the face!"
<sigh> Viv says its no longer "all me".
http://wendy-mags.mybrute.com/
This pretty much just encourages us to get more debt. On an AT that has more control over how its healthbar fluctuates, this may have made sense. Blasters are fundamentally broken right now, and giving them improved resist/defense would alter the philosophy of the AT. Their problems do not need to be addressed with a quick fix; they need someone to sit down and seriously reconsider how their powers are built. Suggestions already abound on these forums, but let me point out a few things that I think need your attention:
1. Why are most of our ultimate powers PBAoE? Are we Scrappers?
2. Ever notice how the attack powers in the Secondaries make no form of sense whatsoever? We should have a variety of offensive, ranged options open to us. This does not necessarily mean twenty attacks per build. Items like Build-Up, Targetting Drone, Aim, Power Boost, Conserve Power, and their ilk are what help Blasters most. Give us Secondaries with effect-style powers (I'm not saying Defense here) that help us apply our attacks in different ways and varied situations.
Oh, and one other thing. The only use I've found for Defiance thus far is this: I Fly up to max height, drop the power, land with 1 hp remaining, and wreak havoc. In a group with a talented Tank, Blasters can use this without too much fear, especially if we use (for example) a range-slotted Snipe with Build-Up and Aim. We can easily evade getting that last 1 hp taken at such a range, and Phase Shift makes a handy backup in this situation. That's all I've managed to do with Defiance thus far that seemed to make it useful, and it smacks of an exploit to me.
Dr. Nemesis, Energy/Energy Blaster
Virtue
(looking for the ultimate villain RP group? try www.nemesiscouncil.com)
Defiance is pointless if I'm dead. I can lose 40% of my health with just one alpha strike from an LT and his minions. Hell, it can happen just from an LT in some circumstances. This defiance effect is actually the perfect advocate to support upping Blaster defenses (instead of the incomprehensible lowering of it for I5 - this thinking still floors me). Increase the survivablity of Blasters and Defiance might actually be valuable. With increased HP and lowered defences cancelling each other out, Defiance is pointless.
This is a neat idea, but it will be difficult to execute.
The issue is the RATE at which blasters lose health. One hit at high levels immediately puts a blaster into defiance range, doing more damage, thus earning more agro? The second hit then kills unless the defiance dmg boost finishes the opponent off.
This is a neat idea, but I'm not sure it addresses the issue of blasters being 1 and 2 shot wimps at 32+, which is the crux of the AT imbalance.
What if defiance dmg came with a some kind of cc component, or something that did not draw agro?
I don't want this power.
I don't.
Take it away, give it to Scrappers, or Tankers, or heck, even Defenders, or just toss it in the garbage can, because I'd rather have nothing at all than to have this power.
Think about that for a second.
I'd rather have nothing....than this power. Why? Here we go:
If we're only going to get one inherent ability, I'd like it to be something that is actually useful to me, at every level, and is always available. Tankers don't just get punch-voke when they're low on HP. Scrappers don't get get their chance to crit when they're low on HP. Controllers don't just get their chance to crit-hold when they're low on HP. Even a random chance to get your inherent ability (as is the case with crits), at least has the virtue that it can happen any time, not just when you're hanging by a thread.
Defiance is a bad idea. I could understand a Scrapper or Tanker becoming more powerful as they get closer to death (Wolvie, Hulk), but rarely have I seen a Blaster that increases his power output as a direct result of taking damage. Sure, Cyke would sometimes "whip off the visor" and cut loose....but he can do that anytime (as can I, once I hit level 32). He doesn't have to be nearly dead to do so.
I don't want to see this tweaked or the numbers adjusted, I want it tossed and replaced with something that's always on (even if only on a randomly activated chance), that isn't linked to my HP bar.
I consider it bad design to link any bonus to someone's HP bar. You should never encourage players to seek out a state of low HP. You should never incentivize a healer not to heal. You should never reward stupid tactics.
If I'm on a team, and I'm below 40% HP, something has gone wrong. My tactics should never include "And then I'll let them shoot me". My team-tactics should never include "Don't heal me". Both of those tactics are unwise (IMHO) and shouldn't be rewarded or incentivized.
Yes, there will be times when I'm low on HP. I'm certainly not saying it doesn't happen (it happens a lot, actually). I am, after all, a Blaster. I've seen more floors than I care to count. Being near death does happen, quite a lot. I'm saying that when that near-death state does happen, attacking is no longer my first choice of tactics, and that when it does happen, that I need to heal/retreat first, then attack. If I'm unable to do so, I'm dead.
At the higher levels of the game (and even sometimes at lower levels) no amount of damage buff is going to save me once I'm down to 40% of my HP. If I'm solo, and I'm that low on HP, I need to be clicking on healing inspirations and/or disengaging, because I've bitten off more than I can chew. If I'm on a team, I need to stop attacking because I've obviously drawn agro away from the Tankers/Scrappers, and I need to let them re-acquire agro. Likewise, if I'm on a team and my HP drops that low, the healer wisely knows that they need to heal me soon, or whatever shot me is about to kill me with the next salvo. And I'm still clicking healing inspirations just in case. Because even with the HP buff, if I'm below 40% HP, odds are, I'm seconds away from being faceplanted. At that point, attacking isn't an option, unless there is no other recourse (out of healing inspirations, healer dead, I'm immobilized-but-not-mezzed/held/stunned/slept, tankers/scrappers down....and even then, I doubt my next shot will make a huge difference, unless we're down to one nearly dead mob).
So no, I don't want this. In any form. I don't want a damage buff linked to my health bar. I'd rather have nothing at all, because this just causes people to use unwise tactics (healers not healing us, Blasters trying intentionally be at low HP), and it will cause people to see us as "lucky" that we got this, so they'll not want to see us getting anything actually useful in the future. I'd rather hold off until something useful can come our way.
And, because I believe in offering suggestions, not just complaints.....
Give us Critical Hits. Play with those numbers, and see what you think is balanced. Let us have them only with single-target, ranged attacks, if necessary, but make them always have a random chance of activating, not just when we're low on HP. Call it a "Bullseye", and have that word flash over our heads instead of the world "Critical". Sure, it's random, but it's always there, and would be better than Defiance, because it's something that doesn't cause you to play unwisely, nor does it require you to be in dire straights for you to even notice it.
or....
Just give us our PvP perk (a percentage of our damage is unresistable) in PvE too. You already gave us this very nice ability inside the Arena, so just add that to us outside the Arena as well. It would give us more effective damage against resistant opponents, without actually raising our base damage at all. Again, play with those numbers and find balance, but it would at least be always on, it would help us the most against highly resistant foes (where we need it the most) and wouldn't need to raise our base damage at all. It would just make our existing damage more effective.
As others have said, at high levels, a Blaster is fine...or dead. We're either at "green" HP, or we're a single volley (and sometimes even a single shot) away from kissing the floor. If we're getting shot, then by the time Defiance kicks in, we're one shot, one volley, one mez, one anything away from being potentially dead. So Defiance is only "on" when we're in a state where the stupidest thing we can do.....is attack. That's just not right, in my opinion.
If I'm below half-health:
I'm never going to ask a healer not to heal me. That is stupid.
Given a choice between healing myself and attacking (if I'm not mezzed), I am never going choose "one more attack, I might kill them.....unless I miss.....or I'm mezzed/stunned/slept....or they fire before my animation finishes....." over "let me heal up so I can continue fighting them".
Please don't give us Defiance. Give Defiance to another AT. One that makes sense. Give us Crits or x% Unresistable Damage. Something that's always there (even randomly) and not just there when I'm almost dead.
Please.
And thank you for the HP increase, the damage cap increase, and the Electrical APP. Those are wonderful things, for which I am very grateful. See, I don't just complain about the bad stuff, I point out the good stuff too! ;-)
Believe it or not, I love the game, love the Dev's, and wouldn't be this blunt (and long-winded) with my critiques if I didn't think that CoH was worth working hard to make great. It is. It's the best game out there, and I want to see it get better and better. I was this way in Beta too. ;-)
All of this is, of course, in my humble opinon. Others' mileage may vary. Keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Lightning Rod
<Guardians>
"I am certain that all CoX will be humbled by the might of the Lightning Rod." -Lady_Sadako
I think the concept of a last-ditch improvement is a good one, but I'm not sure that Damage is the best way to do it to serve the purpose. With my Fire/Fire blaster, I usually die either when I'm held or out of endurance. Maybe the lower health levels could kick in an increased mag to status effects so you can break out of them when you are so close to dying. Another helpful version would be if either your endurance regenerated faster when low on health or you used less and less endurance the closer you are to dying (like Conserve Power).
Thanks!
I think its a great idea, but maybe needs a little tweaking.
What I'd like to see is have defiance kick in earlier, and scale up to max before 5% health. Maybe around 10% you hit max. You could add less of a dmg boost to compmensate for the earlier activation perhaps. I also like the idea of added acc as well along the way.
I still believe this will benefit early lvl blasters more, but thats ok, they probably need the help more at the early lvls.
Defiance is nice, but it doesn't go far enough.
Open it up to all archetypes.
Here's how it goes.
Increasing and Decreasing the Defiance Bar
<ul type="square">[*]Keep the defiance meter as it is, but don't tie it to hitpoints, tie it to incoming damage.[*]An attack increases the defiance meter based on how much of the hero's health it does.[*]When a hero starts to get low on hitpoints, every attack boosts the bar more. A chaingun assault that wears down 30% HP doesn't boost defiance by much if a hero's at full health (as compared to one 30% hp attack, which boosts a lot), but if it happens when the hero's at half health each tick boosts defiance more, so it offers more overall defiance gain than a 30% HP attack would at that point.[*]An attack that lands while a hero is crowd-controlled also boosts defiance more. Attacks that knockdown or knockback also boost defiance.[*]Falling and other forms of environmental damage e.g. lava or acid don't boost defiance.[*]Damage dealt to you by your own powers boosts defiance.[*]Endurance crashes from your own powers drop defiance.[*]After you haven't gained defiance for a few seconds it starts to deplete.[*]Some high-end villain powers such as Mask of Weakness accelerate the rate at which defiance drops. They can drain defiance even while you take damage. DE Swarms will eat away at defiance instead of attack rate.[*]Some powers whose sole purpose it is to suck endurance, e.g. Carnie death and Sapper Sticks will drain less endurance than before but in exchange drain defiance. Defiance drain may be added to some other high-end powers such as Knives of Artemis sleep darts.[*]Powers that protect against endurance drain also protect against defiance drain and defiance drain boosters. The leadership toggles will offer protection against defiance drain. In addition to or instead of its current effects, Vengeance will boost all teammates defiance - this boost is enhanced as normal by low HP or crowd control powers. Defiance losses as a result of your own endurance crashes, however, are unresistable.[*]Death does not reduce defiance. Hospitaling will probably drain a significant portion of defiance before a hero gets back outside, but a hero dropped with significant enough defiance may be able to pop an Awaken and keep on truckin'.[*]Inspirations that temporarily increase defiance may be introduced. These inspirations would only be dropped, never bought. (May I suggest reintroducing the old Resolve line?) In addition, higher-end resurrection inspirations may slow the rate of defiance loss for some period of time.[*]There'd be another kiosk in the tutorial zone explaining defiance. Perhaps instead of the enrage/respite the sergeant could give out a Sheer Willpower?[/list]Effects of High Defiance
<ul type="square">[*]When the defiance bar hits certain levels a hero acquires an effect. This effect remains as long as the bar remains at that level and for a few seconds afterward, somewhere around the duration of a buildup. This may be represented graphically as the defiance bar's background level flashing at the higher defiance level as the bar drains.[*]All archetypes gain certain constant effects as the defiance bar builds. Base magnitude increases, health regeneration and endurance regeneration are boosted, and power recharge rate increases. (Note that this may come to step on Hasten's toes, especially since Hasten's endurance crash sucks out some defiance. This can only be a good thing.)[*]Blasters gain increased accuracy, damage, and defence.[*]Controllers gain increased mez duration. They may also gain extra "while crowd-controlled" damage which spills over to any pets, if this is possible.[*]Defenders see increases in the power of their buffs, debuffs, and heals.[*]Scrappers see increases in their accuracy and critical rate, and boosts in their ability with resistance and defense.[*]Tanks gain increased taunt duration, and increase their damage and base defense and resistance - how much this last happens may vary based on tanker primary. Invuln tankers may gain significant resistance and defense as defiance builds, while fire tankers may gain damage but not so much defense or resistance.[*]Kheldians magnify the effects of their interspatial link; controllers provide some small all-round boost as defiance builds, and non-Kheldian special archetypes may also provide some unique benefit at higher defiance. Getting nicti-blasted also sucks Kheldian defiance, but because the blast first damages, then drains defiance, Kheldians may see a defiance spike that gives them temporary defiance effects (in addition to a smaller gain in net defiance). The stun effect may or may not need to be increased in magnitude - one blast may only detoggle a Kheldian but because of the defiance boost break the Kheldian immediately out of the stun.[*]Optionally, at certain defiance levels archetypes may gain some special particle effect based on their primaries.[/list]Now that defiance exists in the game it's opening up all kinds of possibilities. ...well, inside my head, anyway. PvP with defiance on both sides may be very interesting indeed.
--GF
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Well, I can't kick. Defiance comes at no cost. It's really not much of a boost, but it's free, so I can't say it's a bad thing at all.
Practical? That's more debateable. 40% HP is when all ATs really begin to sweat, blasters moreso. The HP boost helps quite a bit, but nevertheless when the HP bar is down at yellow, or even flashing red (where it has to be for Defiance to really matter), that's when a blaster should be contemplating escape, not trying to pour on the damage.
I think the damage scaling really ought to start a little higher - at least at 50% HP, even if it's a small boost. Again, nobody wants to be down that low. It's not until actually see the numbers in person that I realized that 20% HP is in the neighborhood of 200 HP - one shot away from death against a lt. I like Defiance, but it will be rare for blasters to want to go that low, so I don't think it's going to make a huge impact. But maybe it was only intended to be a small bonus?
It does not hurt blasters at all, having Defiance, and the option to gamble with our lives is an interesting one - but don't encourage it. Inexperienced players aren't going to know when to hold and when to fold, and encouraging them to fight at near death is just going to cause them to rack up even more debt. Foolish blasters are already enough of a pain to group with, pulling, mismanaging aggro, running ahead of the tanks and so forth. Let's not give them something else stupid to do. 
Also, hate the way the bar scales. The 10% (+320% damage) boost only fills the bar up halfway, which is not at all intuitive. It should be more like 3/5 full, scaling according to how close you actually are to 500%.
Arc #41077 - The Men of State
Arc #48845 - Operation: Dirty Snowball
I am not at all impressed with Defiance. I understand that Defiance is meant as a "last ditch" combat effort, and we are not intended to fight at low hit points for extended periods in order to exploit the damage bonus.
However.
Given the reduction in defensive skills, I'm finding combats to be more polarized than ever. Either I'm winning, dominating the fight as I carve through minions before they can react, or I'm completely dominated, subject to chain-mez or taken to the ground in one shot from a boss or one alpha strike. If I am taken down to red hit points, my lack of defensive skills will ensure that I drop in a matter of seconds, and escape trumps Inferno as a reflex reaction.
With 6Def Cloaking Device, Hasten, and Combat Jumping, I used to have some small measure of confidence in my ability to stay alive against that last yellow minion who dodged the Trip Mine. Minions my level or +1 were only hitting me about a quarter of the time, so even at one hit point I could usually survive an attack or two while finishing off the mob. Now, white minions hit me 50-75% more than they did before, so I can no longer rely on those last few seconds to get the job done.
Really, my question is, when am I supposed to benefit from Defiance? Is it meant to help me solo, or is it more a grouping thing? Already, Defenders are beginning to debate whether they should heal Blasters or not... I can see a very real situation developing where Defenders delay healing me because they think I prefer to fight in Defiance mode.
It's nice to have a damage boost, but I can't see yet how this is supposed to give me a lasting survivability enhancement. If anything, I think you're encouraging new Blasters to fight at half hit points, which will inevitably lead to disaster and debt.
I haven't tested Defiance and frankly, I'm not going to bother. This whole concept is against my playstyle.
I've played a couple of Blasters for over a year now. I know that when my health drops to half, I'm going to get screwed if I don't use a Respite immediately. Especially since those little Respites my contact sells me don't heal much. I'm not going to fool around just to see a little boost in damage.
This is even more true if I'm on a team. Should I voluntarily increase my chances of defeat significantly by not using a Respite just for a chance of a little more damage? What good is that damage to the team if I don't survive the next shot at me?
I'm a soloist, so even on a team I play self sufficiently. I support the team, but play knowingly that at times, they may not be able to return the support. This keeps me alive. And I believe this will be particularly relavent if Issue 5 goes Live. With the decreases in Tanker and Controller effectiveness, the Defenders may be overwhelmed in trying to keep the front line from falling. I'm not going to distract them with an orange/red health bar.
This buff is bogus and is too dangerous to use. If I'm on with any of my characters that can heal, you can be sure that I'll be conducting drive-by heals without reservation. Tell your in-game support crew to expect petitions about me for griefing with heals.
Teams are the number one killer of soloists.
Defiance seems better suited as a way of giving Tankers the offensive increase they were asking for way back when than it does as a way of helping Blasters do anything but faceplant in a more efficient manner.
From a practicality standpoint, it's worthless. Testing in battle with a low level Archery Blaster I found that by the time my Defiance bar was a quarter of an inch in length, so too were my HP and End bars. Maybe if it boosted accuracy and spiked endurance it would be worthwhile. But right now, it isn't. At least the name sounds more heroic than Desperation.
My recommendation to Blasters would be to stick with the tactics you've grown used to from actually running Blasters. Play as if you don't have Defiance at all. If it kicks in, it kicks in, but don't go trying to get it to kick in and don't rely on it. When you get in trouble, slam greenies, get healed, or get the heck out of Dodge. And in the name of all that's good and tasty in Odin's beard, do not do any of these "stupid Blaster tricks".
My thoughts on Defiance are it is not going to be at all helpful post level 6 or so. Once you hit 40% of your HP it usually only takes one more hit and you are down. Like many others have said if we get to 40% we are popping insp like mad or trying to find somewhere to run. At 40% I have always felt defeat is iminent while using my blaster. Especially after lvl 40. My blaster was consistantly one or two shotted after lvl 40.
If you are going to go this route I feel there should be a few more tweaks and here are a few ideas...
1. when hp hits 50% damage starts to climb, along with defense. If you add some defense along with the damage output you may give blasters a chance to even utilize defiance.
2. start defiance at 90% without any defense added. from 90% to 50% could not be an extreme difference but some difference 50% and below would be where the major difference in damage comes in. It still will take some thought as how far you want to let yourself drop before popping insp or running.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. Onto the other I5 posts now.
My testing comes from a level 50 blaster, so I can't say anything about the lower levels. I can say this though: in the end game, defiance is 100% useless.
Even with the extra health, blasters are still squishy. There is no room for "playing hurt". You either fight at full health, or you die. I know that in the early levels I could start fights at like 30% health and be fine...the mobs couldn't do enough damage to me to take off that 30% before I killed them. The end game is the opposite. The mobs can almost always take off all 100% of my health, unless I kill them in just a few seconds.
This leaves no room for defiance. If you try to take advantage of it, you will die constantly. If you actually play like a blaster SHOULD play (when you get hurt and are about to die, you either heal, or run away), defiance never even comes into play.
I like the extra health and damage blasters were given. And I think blasters are still very fun to play. And overall, they're probably better. But it has NOTHING to do with defiance. The way defiance is now, you could leave it in the game or completely take it out, and nobody in the higher levels would even notice. It's that pointless.
Defiance is a good attempt at helping blasters. I'll give you that but it's implementation is flawed at best. I would much rather see a timed limit break senario as follows:
Start racking up damage, even if it is healed, your def meter goes up. get to 1.0 and you get 5 seconds of 500% damage. Meter resets.
I been playing this game for a little more then 1 year and i have always love playing a blaster. Some of the new changes to the set i like like more damage and higher HP. The only change that i hate the most out of everything is Defiance. Like i have read from many of these posts is that people are using it in the WRONG way. I'm guessing the idea for this was to not have blasters stand in a mob and take damage till they get to 5% life left so the can do awesome damage. With defiance I feel that there are going to be to many people yelling about how they always died becasue even with defiance bar at the 500% they still missed and ended up dieing. I also feel that blasters are going to tell people not to heal that thus causing them more debt and more complaining. Now if there was also an added acc that would help alot and might not be as bad as it is currently now.
On another note. Is the defiance bar broke on test because it takes forever to get to the max point even when I have like 5 life left it still isnt all the way up.
"while some people would say fish, cow, ambush!"-Ice9
I feel that defiance will most likely help low lvl blasters, but thats never where we needed the help. In the high lvl game, we are ussually killed pretty instantly.
Also, defiance doesnt kick in till we are pretty low on health, and any blaster who wasn't killed outright and who has half a brain will run.
Additionally, I don't like anything that encourages defenders not to use their healing powers. This point takes defiance from a "I feel neutral about it" power to an "Id rather not have it" one.
PS: I HATE TRAVEL SUPRESSION!!!!
What SirMixalot states is very true, I tried playing with the 40% health with my 50 and all I can say is Ouch! I tried mantaining it with Force of Natue but that coudn't hold it for long with out pumping in insp and avoiding healing powers when bleeding from the head is just not smart tactics in my book even with added damage, cause you have got to be able to take the hit to deal the hit.
This is a brilliant idea. Blasters and criticals and scrappers and rage at getting hurt go together much better than the other way around.
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Two Points:
1) Defiance works pretty well, but is very dangerous for a blaster. I recommend switching scrapper criticals and defiance around. It really sounds like something for a scrapper; and scrappers loose health slowly, where blasters loose it fairly quickly.
2) Add some kind of aura or something that tells us when it is on. I was thinking the aura from DM Soul Drain in a different color would look cool.
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Yet another voice touting the usefulness of this power at low levels and the uselessness at higher.
I think idea of 'Defiance' is a great one, but the implementation (at least for higher levels) needs some definite tweaking.
Bloody Axe Inv/Axe - Champion
Dying Cooper Spi/Reg - Champion
Power Rock Stone/EM - Justice
Mistress Magma Fire/Kin - Freedom