Why don't we just revamp the Issues thread that was posted in the thread that Castle posted in?
Great idea! I'm just trying to get stuff out there since we were asked.
Ideally, the tank will die precisely as everyone else starts fighting, allowing aggro to be spread evenly among the blaster. -seebs, "How to Suck at CoH/CoV" Guide
From Red Zero:
I saved this from a while back, I don't know how currently applicable is but not much has ever changed with blaster so here goes.. (The following is a quote but the quote box messes with the format)
Given the change to enhancements upcoming, not sure how relevant some of this is. Having said that, I am still going to follow through updating this as much as possible.
Please add your feedback!
I will update again soon!
Hey all Blasters.. I thought it might be good to put our thoughts down on what are issues are as of right now.
You can enter a Bug, Balance issue, or Wishlist item for any of the powersets.
Please, enter all of your Blaster issues in this post.
Thanks!
General bugs affecting Blasters - unresolved
Bug: The Defiance meter does not seem to be working properly. It goes up regardless of your current health at times.
Bug: Defiance itself seems to kick in when your health is at 100%. You also seem to lose Defiance too soon, even when your health is in the red.
Balance: Quality of life issues are important and have been addressed by the developers in the past. While dramatically increasing the range of an attack like Blaze (20') would not be realistic without some other change to the power, there are other powers where the range equalization would not be such a drastic change.
For example: Charge Bolt is 70', Lightning Bolt 80', Ball Lightning 80'. I ask you what is the purpose of Charge Bolt having 10' less of range and would it really be game breaking to increase it to 80' to match Lightning Bolt and Ball Lightning?
Second Example: Take Assault Rifle, Burst 90', Slug 100', Buckshot 40', M30 Grenade 80', Bean Bag 60', Sniper Rifle 150', Flame Thrower 40', Ignite 30', Full Auto 80'. That's a huge mess of ranges and it servers very little purpose. It would be better playwise to have ranges fall into the same catagories like so: Burst 90', Slug 90', Buckshot 40', M30 Grenade 90', Bean Bag 90', Sniper Rifle 150', Flame Thrower 40', Ignite 40', Full Auto 90'. (submitted by Red_Zero)
Balance: Leadership Pool: Maneuvers seems to have no effect whatsoever when used by a blaster. It does not appear to boost either blaster defense OR the defense of teammates in the AoE. Further testing is probably needed, but "within the margin of error" for 200 attacks would still put maneuvers 4-slotted with white +DEF enhancements at under 3% Defense, which is completely worthless. (submitted by Orinn)
Balance: Leadership Pool - Blasters should get bonuses at least equal to Defenders for Assault and Tactics as these are qualities that define Blasters. It seems to be preferental treatment that any Archtype should benifit more from a Power Pool power than other Archtypes. If this is to be the case then what Power Pool powers do Blasters benifit more from then other Archtypes? (submitted by Red_Zero)
Balance: Range - At even base level, all blaster powers seem to be easily outranged, outshot, and outdamaged by controllers and defenders. Blasters are supposed to be the strongest damage period (defiance not included), and, keeping with the "range is a best defense" theory, should have the best range and better accuracy. Boosting bases on all three parts of the blaster poolsets would make a blaster comparable to the other ranged poolsets. (submitted by Shylar)
Wishlist: It would be nice if Defiance would kick in earlier. The way it works now seems to promote poor gameplay of new blasters. It is also the only inherent power based on the AT's health, and Blasters are one of the most squishy AT.
Wishlist: Range - If we are going to be a ranged AT, no attack should be less than 60 or 80 feet. PbAoE in the primary is an anathema to the entire concept of a "ranged" blaster. (Submitted by Concern)
Wishlist: Range - Statesman has said our defense is range, yet range means nothing to an AT that can be outranged by the enemy & self-roots with our attacks. Make range mean something! And if we are ranged, why do so many secondaries have so many melee attacks? (submitted by LaughingBoy)
Wishlist: Defiance - Defiance needs a lot of work. For a lot of Blasters, we're already near the cap. And to get any benefit from it, we need to be nearly dead. This does not promote good game play. An inherent that wasn't tied to our health like most of the other inherents would be better. (submitted by LaughingBoy)
Wishlist: Secondaries (General): Secondary powers should support the blasters ranged concept either by helping keep enemies at range, or destroying enemies that venture close enough to hurt the blaster in melee. (submitted by Concern)
Wishlist: Movement: Movement is paramount to blasters. The blaster should not have long animation times on attacks or should not be rooted by attacks that do have long animation times. (submitted by Concern)
Wishlist: Blaster issue PvP: Why are blaster's toggle droppers melee oriented. Since we are blasters we should have a few toggle droppers that are not melee based for every power set. (submitted by DarkLordTrilogy)
General Blaster Primaries - unresolved
Assault Rifle - unresolved
Balance: Unnerf Full Auto. This was the one power that made AR nearly on par with Fire Blast. With it it in its current state, AR is a poor man's Fire blaster. (submitted by Pseudotron)
Balance: Ignite is just bad mobs run from it like burn and since the patch is so small they only take 2-3 ticks of damage- fix ad a slow component to it so they run out slower and actually take some damage from it. (submitted by Saint_O_Killers)
Wishlist: Smashing/Lethal resists are very high throughout the game, since most of AR's attacks are S/L we are not able to do the amount of damage other powersets can do.
Wishlist: It's an incredibly difficult animation process but one wonders if you can't design animations so that the weapon doesn't disappear. The big problem is also the long animations, particularly the ones that root. (submitted by Siberian_Gale)
Wishlist: Ignite: This was once an impossibly useful power and now seems much less useful. If it's meant to be a teamwork power (controller immobolizes), a little more area would be nice. (submitted by Siberian_Gale)
Ice Blast- unresolved
Bug: Blizzard: Every primary has a nuke, they drain all end and leave you unable to recover end for a short time (10 seconds). Blizzard drains and doesn't allow you to recover for the duartion of the blizzard + 10 seconds. blizzard's duration is 20 seconds so that is like 30 seconds we have to go without end recovery. (submitted by Icerian) NOTE: THIS MAY BE FIXED NOW.
Bug: Bitter Freeze Ray: The Foe freezes before the animation is done. (submitted by MageStorm)
Balance: Blizzard doesn't stack up with Nova or Inferno. If you are defeated before Blizzard ends, Blizzard stops (which is very easy to do because you don't have any endurance). (submitted by Sockem)
Balance: Blizzard doesn't get any bonus from Aim and Build Up making it less effective then other Nuke-type attacks. (submitted by Icerian)
Fire Blast - Unresolved
Bug: When a Storm Def used freezing rain and Snow storm, then I used Rain of Fire, the mobs regained their full running speed to flee the radius of FR. (submitted by Orochi)
Balance: The animation for Flares is far too long for its damage. (submitted by Steel_Inferno)
Balance: Blazing Bolt: Many players find sniper attacks too situational and bypass them--they are difficult to fit into a normal attack chain. (submitted by Siberian_Gale)
Balance: The range of Blaze is practically in melee. While its understandable that it might be slightly overpowered if it had the standard base range of 80 ft., increasing its range to 40 ft or so would make it an actual ranged attack. (submitted by Siberian_Gale)
Balance: INFERNO takes FAR too long to activate (animation time). Seeing it's a PBAoE, one cannot hope to fire it off if there's any aggro going on. (submitted by Fyreblast)
Wishlist: Rain of Fire should either do more damage, or do its damage faster. As it currently stands, this power really only useful for area denial and attracting more than your share of aggro. (submitted by Steel_Inferno)
Electrical Blast Unresolved
Bug: When I use Short Circuit while invisible, mobs notice me when I begin the attack animation instead of when it actually goes off.
Bug: Voltaic Sentinel does the same damage for blasters as it does for defenders. (submitted by Axterix)
Balance: This set was supposed to be killer in PvP but we understand that isn't the case. The damage seems to be lacking. Most notably, it has only two single target attacks and a snipe. (submitted by Siberian_Gale)
Balance: Weak melee attacks in the secondaries without a useful secondary effect serve no purpose and should be replaced with something better. (submitted by Axterix)
Wishlist: /elec: the %chance of sleep needs to be raised to be on par with /energy. also the end drain portion needs to be raised as well. with a higher s/l to energy damage split on our attacks, our secondary effects should be boosted in order to balance the set. s/l is the most resisted damage type in the game, and our energy damage output isnt that high. (submitted by Macron)
Wishlist: I'd like to see Charged Bolts' animation changed to that of Neutrino Bolt's. It would be kinda entertaining to quickly zap a mob, and would help increase Electric's overall ability for ranged combat. Also increase range to 80'. (submitted by Angry_Citizen)
Wishlist: Post ED wishlist: An enhancement that would increase the amount of time that a certain end drain power stops end recovery. (submitted by DarkLordTrilogy)
Wishlist: Post ED wishlist: Add either a higher base end drain to various elec blaster powers, or add an end recovery to some of elec blaster powers. (submitted by DarkLordTrilogy)
Wishlist: keep the -endurance drain on elctric blasters the same as/elec defenders. I know they added the increased -end on defenders to help "augment their defencive capabilites", but -end is also crucial to the elec blaster (especially since the ED adjustment and it's effect on our number one -end power Short Circuit) (submitted by colorichard)
Energy Blast - Unresolved
Balance: Power Burst: very short (20') range forces near melee out of a blaster. (submitted by Siberian_Gale)
Balance: Energy Blasts are too slow compared to Fire and Ice blasts doing the same amount or even less damage. Knockback is not 100% so that advantage is hit or miss at best. (submitted by MageStorm)
Balance: Power Bursts Range and Damage are both less than a faster activating Bitter Ice Blast. (submitted by MageStorm)
Wishlist: Power Push have a disorient added to it. It would increase the synergy of the Energy Primary and Secondary. (submitted by MageStorm)
Wishlist: Explosive Blasts damage increased and the scatter knockback be changed to knockdown. This is the most unfriendly team power short of a peacebringer. (submitted by MageStorm)
Wishlist: Energy Torrent: an AoE that throws everything back is team unfriendly. Energy blasters work around this but many would prefer knockdown instead of knockback. (submitted by Siberian_Gale)
Wishlist: Explosive Blast: a low damage, high knockback attack is about as team-unfriendly as you can get. Wishlist: this attack should do knockdown and not knockback. (submitted by Siberian_Gale)
Archery - Unresolved
Bug: If the power isn't recharged and you try to use it, it does the animation anyway. (submitted by Mister Weekly)
Bug: When missing an attack, the word "miss" will appear above the mobs head before the arrow leaves the bow. This causes instant aggro from the mob before the shot is fired. (submitted by Dingly_Dang)
Bug: Archery's snipe: After the animation, there is a non-trivial "dead zone" of time when you cannot activate another power. This time is so extensive that, unlike other blasters, buffs like AIM will wear off before a second attack can be made. (submitted by Predicant)
Balance: The endurance usage for the damage done is too high. This set underperforms other blaster sets in terms of being able to deal damage efficiently. (submitted by Dingly_Dang)
Wishlist: Animation times of attacks needs to be shortened. Especially since no secondary uses a bow, the redraw times are terrible. (submitted by Dingly_Dang)
Sonic Blast - unresolved
Balance: Shout: very short (20') range forces melee type ranges. (submitted by Siberian_Gale)
General Blaster Secondaries - unresolved
Bug:
Balance: Although difficult to do now and implement a
Balance of Blaster secondaries in terms of powers / magnitude / effect. The 9th Tier power is a single target Boss Class mez effect. Offer Buildup at level 4 in every secondary not just Energy. (submitted by deadboy_champion)
Wishlist:
Devices - unresolved
Bug: Trip Mines in Devices do not work all the time, sometimes enemies walk right over them without them going off.
Bug: When laying trip mines sometimes you stay in the kneeling stance even after you have laid the mine.
Bug: Smoke Grenade counts as an attack. While it does not add aggro by itself, it does suppress all other forms of stealth and itself, severely limiting its usefulness. It is non-sensical for a stealth power to eliminate stealth. (submitted by Steel_Inferno)
Bug: Web Grenade. Graphics bug. Causes the avatars neck to extend like a turtle. (submitted by Dr_Rockstar)
Balance: Each other secondary get their toggle knocks at 4 and 10 devices gets theirs at 28 and 35. every other one knocks off multiple togges and is easy to use mines and time bombs knock one toggle and you have to get your opponent to stand in the right place at the right time while being vulnerable while setting it. fix take toggle knock from time bomb and put it in tazer. (submitted by Saint_O_Killers)
Balance: Auto turret does low damage has terrible range , is immobile lasts very short time and costs 50 end. fixing any of these would be nice what i would like to see is a jagger like device that has the unlimited lifespan of other pets. honestly what kind of shoddy device maker builds things that explode after 2 min of use. (submitted by Saint_O_Killers)
Balance: Tripmine/Timebomb - Every other Blaster secondary has NON-Interruptible Toggle dropper - consider reducing the animation time and/or making them non-interruptible? Again would this make Devices Blasters too powerful in both PvP and PvE? (submitted by deadboy_champion)
Wishlist: Taser is the only melee attack in Devices, and is widely considered to be sub-par unless you have Beanbag from the AR primary. Perhaps increasing its damage to higher than 1 brawl might increasse its utility without making it overpowering. (submitted by Steel_Inferno)
Wishlist: Make taser drain endo. the ONLY reason anyone takes taser is to stack with beanbag (which is pretty cool in it's own right). i say give it that same kind of synergy with electric blast. besides...it's a taser. think about it. (submitted by dropped_dee)
Wishlist: Please, for the love of Satan, change the looping sound for Targeting Drone already! (submitted by Steel_Inferno) NOTE: THIS IS NOW FIXED.
Wishlist: Allow Auto Turret to be slotted with Taunt enhancements. (submitted by Steel_Inferno)
Wishlist: how about granting Targeting Drone a boost to perception (similar to Focused Accuracy) (submitted by deadboy_champion)
Wishlist: Wish list: Devices Blaster uses a combination of Smoke Grenade and Cloaking Device to achieve invisiblity in the ring. How about granting CD the same level of Invisiblity as say Superior Invisibility at an increased Endurance Cost. Smoke Grenade is often too hard to use in the Arena especially when one is busy setting traps. However would that make Devices Blasters too powerful in the Arena? (submitted by deadboy_champion)
Ice Manipulation - unresolved
Wishlist: Frozen Aura: a melee AoE sleep as an ultimate secondary power? At the very least make this ranged. (submitted by Siberian_Gale)
Balance: Ice Patch: long animation which, admittedly, is shorter than it's big brother attack Ice slick. But comared with
Caltrops--an power that seems to be of equal utility--it is an issue. Wishlist: a short range for this power so it can help tank frieds out without putting the blaster in AoE hell.(submitted by Siberian_Gale)
Balance: Freezing Touch: Pointblank hold defeats the "keep the enemy back" nature of this secondary. Wishlist (possible): make this a total focus kind of power with a potent hold added instead of a disorient. Ideally the hold would start before the attack, making this a very nice 0-range freeze. (submitted by Siberian_Gale)
Fire Manipulation - unresolved
Bug: Fire Sword Circle has a long (2 seconds?) pause after its animation, during which the blaster cannot attack. (submitted by Steel_Inferno)
Balance: Balance: This entire set really needs to be reworked. Many of the powers are designed for use by tanks, and are nearly suicidal when used by blasters. (submitted by Steel_Inferno)
Balance: Hot feet this 38 power is a joke give them greater fire sword or something useful. (submitted by Saint_O_Killers)
Energy Manipulation - unresolved
Bug: Power Thrust accepts Knockback enhancements, but they do not enhance knockback at all. (submitted by Pulsewave)
Electrical Manipulation - unresolved
Balance: Increase Shocking Grasp's damage slightly, by a Brawl point or two. At least on par with Charged Brawl, a level two attack. Also give it an 80% chance to add another magnitude of hold, like with Total Focus' disorient. These changes would help make Shocking Grasp worth the 20 point endurance cost. (submitted by Angry_citizen)
For Discussion
Questions: Defiance: it was told to us that it would kick in sooner than 40% but that was never implemented. (Submitted by Magestorm)
I have my original AR/Dev post saved in Notepad at home, I'll paste it when I get back.
Fire Melee: You'll find most fire Blasters that PvP take HotFeet. I'd like to see HotFeet available sooner in the set (so you could at least use it in Sirens). Swap out Burn or Combustion for Greater Fire Sword. HotFeet's end cost is also pretty high.
Elec Melee: Make Lighting Field's -End Auto Hit but the damage require an accuracy check.
Currently roleplaying, badgehunting, and laughing at the PvPers of CoX. lol, PvP.
Truedusk - Human Rogue
defiance:
At the higher levels defiance only becomes usefull if any blaster who wants to survive is running or yelling for a heal.
QoL:
Now this is more criticisism on the general design of blasters
The no mez protection makes for VERY frustrating play and it's impossible to play on anything over heroic due to the huge ammount of mez powers of mobs. a full tray of breakfrees won't get you through the mission.
The good side: it forces blasters to use tactics or rather certain powers like snipes and own mezzes to put those units out of the fight.
another note, teaming with an emp defender makes a blaster on heroic unstoppable.
Maybe there's a way to find a middle road?
A lot of time when you're teaming a blaster can't go all out because of aggro management. just one wrong timed fireball will mean quick death and a tank wondering where all the mobs went. good tanks avoid this.. but it's not the norm.
Fire secondary needs work.. BUT
in PvE it's completely worthless..
for PvP there actually are a few usefull powers like hot feet in there. It's a long time ago that i played my fire/fire blaster.
The thing that other secondaries have is a lot more utility and damage mitigation in their secondary.. from everything from slows to end drain to knockback.
Most /fire power just draw more aggro and don't stop any damage coming in.
I'd vote for a bit more utility in here other than DoT
It should be noted that this thread should be restricted to problems with actual blaster powers or gameplay.
Try and leave the wishlist items off as much as possible and lets try and identify problems.
I am only saying this as a suggestion, I have participated in many of these threads, and blasters have created several of them. To have Castle come in and ask us where our consolidated list is, frankly very insulting to me. Also, I know that Castle was PMed links to a few threads dealing with blaster issues so for him to come out and ask in a condescending manner where our list was, was a pure insult intended to put down the poster he was talking to.
After the respons to the defender thread, I have little hope that anything will actually be changed as far as blasters go because they made it clear there that they are working on new and shiney and not on making what they already have more fun to play. I don't see the issues of blaster primary ranged powers ever being addressed due to the way the developers have fixated in their minds how much of a value range is (range is actually a very small value and animation time is a very large value but they seem oblivious to this) and they don't want to make changes that will result in precious animation time being taken away from new and shiney things.
Thus, I may pop in this thread here and there but for the most part I am not going to contribute to it. I don't need a developer to tell me that things are going to stay the way they are because the developers don't want to fix the problems, all I need to know that is that the problem still exists and they haven't fixed it yet.
Am I bitter? You bet. I got stabbed in the back again. What was I thinking, trying to improve TA? Well, I am not the whipping boy. I am not going to ask for another.
You guys are hitting all the important stuff so far, good job!
I thought I would add a few and reiterate some that have been mentioned for emphasis...
Blaze/Power Burst/ect. do have an extremely short range for what they do. A boost to at least 40ft would be helpful.
Aim, couldn't this power have a perception boost for it's duration. I don't see having Tactics perception for 10 seconds being game breaking. And it kinda fits our AT concept.
I have always wondered why Energy blasts are blueish white and Energy manipulation attacks are redish white. More of a 'general' power/animation customization, but I thought I would mention it.
This was originally posted in October in this thread. It's had over 8000 views and over 200 responses - none of which came from a Dev.
After reading threads in the Training Room forum, as well as tons of threads in the Blaster forum over the past week or so, I've created this thread to address the bigger and more gamebreaking aspects of not only the individual Assault Rifle and Devices sets, but also the use as a cohesive build.
I'd like to make it known, this is not an opportunist attempt to get sets I like buffed. This is however an attempt to fix major problems with two sets and one build that have had problems for quite some time and are even worse with ED.
The only thing I ask is that Geko read this thread and seriously take into account what has been posted.
Assault Rifle
For the most part, the individual powers in this set are fine so I won't go into the whole power-to-power breakdown. The main disadvantage has always been that 6 out of 8 the damage dealing powers are highly composed of Lethal/Smashing damage which is the most commonly resisted damage type(s) in the game. Many mobs in PvE resist it and everybody in PvP has some type of armor that give substantial resists.
ED has magnified this problem by limiting how effective attack powers can be from a damage standpoint. While damage type was important before ED, it's huge after. With damage now limited via enhancements, someone doing Energy, Fire, or Cold damage has become substantially more dangerous than someone using Lethal/Smash damage.
Yes, every primary and secondary should have some type of weakness. Ice lacks AOE, Fire lacks single target, Energy lacks AOE on the scale that Fire and AR has, etc. However, AR's smash/lethal weakness is far too much.
In the past there have been many solutions thrown around. The list below are a few that I've remembered:
- [*]Armor Piercing Rounds - The most common solution, probably because it's the best one. The idea is to give the Assault Rifle primary an inherent ability that makes a percentage of it's damage unresisted. I'd say a fair number would be 20-25% unresisted for lethal/smash single target attacks and 15% unresisted with a chance to crit for 20% on random mobs for lethal/smash AOEs. With this system, Flamethrower does not get buffed nor does Ignite because they are Fire damage based attacks.
[*]Add a fire or energy component to some attacks. - An uncommon solution, but a feasible one. The idea to is to overcome the weakness by splitting a purely lethal or purely smash damage attack into an attack that is part lethal or smash and part energy (or fire).
So as an example, an attack that does purely lethal damage would become a lethal/energy attack. Say, 65% lethal and 35% energy. This could easily be RP'd as the gun firing bullets so fast they begin to generate energy or heat up rapidly en route to the target - or just say the gun adds the component.
For attacks that have both lethal and smash components, it could either be split into a 40%/40%/20% split - where the 20% is the energy (or fire) component. The other option is to completely drop the either the lethal or smash component and replace it with energy (or fire).
Admittedly, I'm not a math person so the numbers could be way too high or way too low. I'm sure somone will let me know soon enough.
[*]Criticals. - Here, the idea is to offset the lethal/smash with a chance to do critical damage. The difference would be instead of having a higher chance to crit on LTs and Bosses like Scrappers do, an AR Blaster would have a higher chance to crit on minions, which keeps it in theme with Blasters who have lots of AOE as the "minion killers".
I personally don't like this idea, simply because it treads on Scrapper territory too much for my liking.[/list]
Devices
The main beef most players have right now is with Targetting Drone - the issue being that TD allowed players to six-slot their attacks with damage, enabling them to do 33% more damage with each attack. The cost of this was no Build-Up, which players were able to accept. However with ED, six-slotting for damage is no longer a realistic practice, making any /Devices Blaster underpowered compared to their counterparts who have a secondary with Build-Up.
At first people like me said, "Well since we won't have to slot for ACC, we can use slots for recharge - problem solved." However this doesn't work out that well since we end up spending a lot more endurance just in a attempt to keep pace with other Blasters who have Build-Up. In this case the global end cost redux gets offset.
From Geko:
[ QUOTE ]
Targeting Drone does offer a perception bonus. The short and long help, as well as the buff icon describes this. Perhaps you have not tested all of the changes very thoroughly.
[/ QUOTE ]
If perception has been added, I hope that it's not "token" perception. By that I mean a small perception bonus whose only purpose is to say, "Targetting Drone has a perception bonus now". Please let it be a bonus that's actually useful. Tactics, a pool power, can see through Superior Invisibility - so I'd hope Targetting Drone, a power in a secondary powerset is at least as powerful in the perception area as Tactics.
However, increased perception doesn't solve the damage problem for /Devices Blasters. Since the majority will only be adding three damage enhancements in their attack powers, /Dev Blasters are missing a +99% (if my math is correct) buff that the other enhancements would've given.
Possible Solutions: While Cloaking Device is active (toggled on and not suppressed) give the Blaster a damage buff. When CD becomes suppressed, lessen the damage buff by a third. This still makes /Dev Blasters feel the affects of ED without completely getting rid of one of the advantages the set provides. Also, it makes Cloaking Device substantially different from Stealth - another issue which Devices has had for an extended time is that besides a small movement penalty easily offset by Sprint (an inherent power) and CD keeping it's very minor defense while suppressed, there was no major difference between the two. This solves that.
RP for this could be you get a jump on your opponent or the actual device feeds the Blaster extra energy or something to that effect.
Another major issue is the Trip Mine power. In it's current form, it either an "alpha strike" power or a power used for traps. The problem is, the damage is so meager now that it really isn't that affective anymore in either role.
As a toggle dropper in PvP, it's greatly ineffective unless you take a pool power.
Possible Solution: Greatly reduce the interrupt time so that Trip Mine can be used in the heat of battle. It is substantially weaker now, thus it shouldn't take as long to set.
Possible Solution: Add a moderate DoT to any mob caught in the mine's blast AOE.
From Geko:
[ QUOTE ]
I am taking a look at the Turret to see if it needs some love.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thank you - it's needs a lot of love. A lot.
From Geko:
[ QUOTE ]
Smoke grenade does suppress your stealth, but it does not alert the mob of your presence. So if you throw it while you are cloaked, they will not see you if you are more than 45' away. I suggest throwing it and then turning on your cloaking device.
[/ QUOTE ]
Allowing us to slot range enhancements in Smoke Grenade would be great. As it is, we have to inch closer and closer to make sure we're on the "edge" of it's range - often times getting too close.
Also reducing the base recharge of CD would make your suggestion more feasible. As it now, it would save time to just wait out the suppression.
The Assault Rifle/Devices Build
Taking a look at the problems these individual sets have, imagine how bad they are when used together after ED. This is one of the more popular builds in the game, simply off concept alone and it's horrible.
Also let me add that I'm in total agreement with Concern about one specific thing: The snide question about us having a thread with our complaints. There have been more than enough of these threads posted since 2004 without a single Dev response. Players have spent hours testing and posting numbers that prove Blaster powersets are broken. Those types of threads are not uncommon in this forum and it's in very taste to even make a remark that suggests otherwise.
[ QUOTE ]
Also let me add that I'm in total agreement with Concern about one specific thing: The snide question about us having a thread with our complaints. There have been more than enough of these threads posted since 2004 without a single Dev response. Players have spent hours testing and posting numbers that prove Blaster powersets are broken. Those types of threads are not uncommon in this forum and it's in very taste to even make a remark that suggests otherwise.
[/ QUOTE ]
Very true.. sadly probably none of that data was saved in a way that makes is possible to get back easily or to search easily so we'll do it again..
Aside from my earlier post,
what kind of problems are we looking at? truly bugs? or game breaking things? or flaws in the concept? or why blasters are frustrating or?
I mean honestly i could care less about the /fire secondary if the game gets less frustrating for blasters.
As a user of Energy Torrent (ET) and Explosive Blast (EB), I'd also like to ask for a damage increase to Explosive Blast. EB's damage is sufficiently low that many people skip it entirely, which is especially out of character for the second to highest power in the set. I have it and I have it slotted but I rarely use it. Solo, the damage from ET + EB is low enough that with a typical three mob spawn it is a better use of my Aim and Build-Up to use Bonesmasher on one mob, Power Burst on a second and Power Bolt/Power Blast on the third. In groups, its low damage output when compared to its mob scattering effect also makes EB an unfavorable choice unless I need to save someone or distract a group of mobs - that is to say, for positioning or aggro redirection, not so much for damage.
I don't think raising the base damage on EB to where Aim + Build-Up + Energy Torrent + Explosive Blast would at least kill even con mobs would be all that bad, and the main reason I think that is that not all the mobs in the initial area of effect will be in the second area of effect or vice versa. Energy Torrent repositions mobs as well as Explosive Blast, so it is commonly the case that some mobs get hit by one, some get hit by the other and some get hit by both.
I would also like to second the call to raise the base range on short range attacks like Power Burst. Range is our defense, but our most potent tools are commonly not all that ranged. Nevertheless, I need Power Burst for that third single target attack! Fancy footwork is fine, but Power Burst as it stands now actually synchs much more seamlessly with melee attacks from my secondary than with the other ranged attacks from my primary. I think Bitter Ice Blast serves as a model for a high damage third single target attack that provides a decent range without being unbalanced.
Failing the range increases, would it be possible to have Range enhancements moved from schedule B to schedule A? Changing Range enhancers from 20% to 33% would make them considerably more attractive options when considering enhancements to fill up those spots after 1 Acc + 3 Dam.
I'm in favor of eliminating all lvl 38 blaster secondary powers and replacing them with a status protection.
EVERYTHING in the upper-lvl game stuns, immob's, sleeps, etc. I understand that devs don't think it's fair that blasters have status protection, but let me just say this: it is no fun at all to be held over and over in a mission.
Sure, we can equip ourselves with tons of breakfree's. But I also need to equip myself with a ton of respites--and quite a few CABs. I just don't have the space for all the inspirations I will need in a mission.
I decided, for fun and what not, to pull out my lvl 50 fire blaster yesterday. I quit in disgust after being chain held by Malta. After playing my corruptor on CoV and my other lvl 50 controller on CoH, I realized that the performance of my blaster is very lackluster. But, even more critical than his performance, my blaster just isn't as fun to play as my other characters.
Simple status protection would do wonders for the playability, survivability, and "funness" of the AT.
Keep in mind, this is written from the perspective of a fire/fire blaster. Other blaster types have some kind of dmg mitigation: (energy, knockback; ice, holds; electricity, end reduction (albeit kind of crappy). Archery and Fire need to have the status protection to balance them with the rest of the blasters in PvE.
Here's a quick fact about Energy's aoe's that most people think about that are valid, imho:
With every other primary, you can chain your aoe's onto a spawn before you release your nuke.
For example: aim+bu+fire breath+fire ball+(run in) inferno
Or run in, aim+bu+short circuit+ball lightning+(run out) thunderous blast.
Or my favorite (because you can do it every 36 seconds at range) - buildup+flamethrower+buckshot+full auto.
These combos, while requiring almost total lockdown by a controller or almost all the aggro held by a tanker, allow you to do ENORMOUS amounts of damage, sometimes enough to kill -everything- in a spawn. Everything. Bosses included.
The problem is, because both of Energy's aoes have knockBACK, instead of knockdown, they scatter the mobs around too much to double aoe+nuke the mobs reliably.
Heck even if you're just teaming (instead of trying to stack damage like crazy), all the scatter is very team unfriendly. Especially if you have other aoe specialists on the team. Not just Blasters, but also Controllers and Defenders who need tightly packed groups to use their controls/immobilizes, aoe debuff toggles/placed debuffs, etc.
Since Knockdown has reported to be a low-magnitiude knockback by Castle in the defender's thread, I propose that energy/'s aoes be changed to knockdown (perhaps with a higher chance to activate to compensate for the lessened hang time/mitigation) and allow blasters to slot knockback enhancements to change these powers back the way they used to be.
Post ED, it's doable now. Anyhow, much thanks to the poster (whose name I forgot) who proposed this solution in the first place. Making Energy aoe's knockdown and letting enhancements scale them back up to knockback was someone else's idea.
Arc Salvo: Okay hold one sec guys, we can't just rush in blindly vs these Nemesis, they've got these ranged aoe's tha-
Teammate1(charging in): Shut up, Arc Salvo, you lame*$% Viewtiful Joe wannabe! What do you know?!
Teammate2(also charging): yeah, ST#& arc salvo u PWR RANGR U!
Arc Salvo: *sigh*
Here is what I can think of from my Ice/fire blaster.
-Blasters in general-
-Blasters have been told our secondaries are being reworked for several months and yet havent seen anything. Is this on the back back burner/low priority, almost ready, not happening anymore? The sheer number of /nrg blasters tells the story of the lack of secondary balance.
-Defiance is too much cost for reward. We shouldnt have to almost die to use our inherit, especially since we are fragile to being with. Most controllers and defenders rightfully heal too when defiance kick in, further negating this power.
- Blasters are considered the most difficult AT to play due to lack of mez protection, lack of damage mitigation, and lack of defense/resist that all the other ATs (including squishies) have.
-Range is not damage mitigation. Almost every mob has a ranged attack, and the later game almost every mob has some kind of ranged mez effect.
-Ice Blast-
-If range was true damage mitigation, then ice blast needs to be buffed. Our blasts have a short range.
1. Freeze Ray: If you go by primary>seconady>app, then freeze ray needs some kind of buff, because char is superior to fr. More damage, more range.
2. Ice Storm and Blizzard dont use bu and aim, but we know thats coming
3. Bitter Freeze Ray: The animation time makes this power lousy in PvP. By the time you see the windup, you can pop a bf and be fine, and start punishing the blaster to boot. The damage part of this power doesnt compensate for this.
4. Blizzard: The -end after you use this power is too long.
-Fire Manipulation-
1. Combustion: This power doesnt work for blasters. The animation is long for someone without good defense or resistance or mez protection to stand in melee, and especially afterwards when you have a whole mob's attention. The damage not being frontloaded also means they will be alive for a little bit to hit you. This power is also redundant...most blasters take FSC instead if they want a PBAoE.
2. Fire sword circle: The pause at the end of the power is dangerous since we are in melee..but I have a feeling it was designed that way.
3. Blazing aura: Too many slots needed for not enough return. Power is a slow DoT that tends to miss and do not a lot of damage and takes a lot of end. Works for tanks because of the taunt on it...but we dont want/need a taunt, so this power isnt very helpful. Also, most blasters would take hot feet instead if they want an aura.
4. Burn: Many blasters chose fire manipulation for this power before it was nerfed. Nothing at all was returned to balance the nerf. Following nerfs to damage and fear have gutted this power. Being able to stand in the middle of a mob and cast this is very dangerous. Every blaster has a better alternative in AoE and damage.
5. Hot feet: Very slot-intensive for a blaster to make it work well.
6. Consume: Very slot-intensive to make it work well. Melee range plus the AoE makes Cabs a better option. Again, easier for tanks to use because they can stand in melee.
*Fire manipulation powers are redundant fsc/combustion, blazing aura/hot feet
*Most fire manipulation powers are much much better designed for tankers then blasters
*The PBAoE nature of these powers has most blasters skipping them
*DoT is the worst effect for a blaster seconadary as it doesnt migate damage.
Hey guys, don't be so hard on Castle, he's a new dev, remember?
He started during COV Beta, and was working on Stalkers and afterwards, Scrappers. He wasn't even remotely thinking that he was going to be looking at our problems until very recently, and it's highly likely that he never read our forums too much because he was reading the Scrapper/Stalker/Defender forums.
And in the Scrapper/Stalker/Defender forums there were very organized and highly publicized Consolidated issues threads that everyone knew about, and Castle's preferred method to communicate with those communities was to post his answers in those consolidated threads.
It's not an insult guys, it's just his method of operation. It's what he's used to doing because it's worked for him 3 times in the past with good results.
And remember, he wasn't here since launch like other devs, and for the short period he was here (like I said) he wasn't reading our forums because he was busy with other things, and it wasn't his job.
Anyhow, even if other devs knew about the various "issues" threads and "consolidated issues" threads floating around here, they might not have told him about it.
Arc Salvo: Okay hold one sec guys, we can't just rush in blindly vs these Nemesis, they've got these ranged aoe's tha-
Teammate1(charging in): Shut up, Arc Salvo, you lame*$% Viewtiful Joe wannabe! What do you know?!
Teammate2(also charging): yeah, ST#& arc salvo u PWR RANGR U!
Arc Salvo: *sigh*
[ QUOTE ]
Hey guys, don't be so hard on Castle, he's a new dev, remember?
[/ QUOTE ]
Suckup! 
I would like to add my own input on Explosive Blast
Energy Blast
Explosive Blast - Explosive Blast is one of the weakest blaster AoE attacks available, especially considering it becoming available at level 26. It is equal in BI to Assault Rifles M20 Grenade and Electrical Blasts Short Circuit (A PBAoE), both available at level 6.
The power seems misplaced. It has the same recharge, range, and "general effect" of Fire Ball and Ball Lightning, yet less damage and an unfriendly secondary effect.
It would help if the knockback portion was changed so that it knocked down even con mobs (+0) and knocked back lower level mobs (-1 and below). The new knockback effect would be similar to the changes made for Super Strength and Stone Melee. This would make the power helpful in teams where a tanker is trying to keep agro within his taunt aura.
Wishlist changes:
Increase the damage of Explosive Blast or Change it's power position (similar to Fire/Electrical)
*Change how knockback works with the power (knockdown for even con, knockback for lower level)
Seperate issue for Energy Torrent
***If the positioning of Explosive Blast and Energy Torrent are changed, and Explosive Blasts damage isn't increased...
It would then make sense to boost Energy Torrent's damage, somewhere between the epic electric power Static Discharge (BI of 2.533) and Fire Breath (3 tics of 1.625, total of 4.875).
Possibly closer to the BI of Fire Breath considering the differences in range (Static Discharge range is 25, Energy Torrent is 15, and Fire Breath is 10).
----------------
Personal thoughts:
I'm willing to bet the positioning of Explosive Blast is to "increase diversity" between blaster primaries, as this has been the answer given to other powersets. I believe _Castle_ has said that they don't want to make the powersets exact clones of each other.
Of course, it wouldn't surprise me to read that Explosive Blast is "Working as intended" either.
Guys, I seriously doubt changes to the way knockback occurs are likely to happen. It seems to me the easier a change is to implement, the likelier a change is to happen.
[ QUOTE ]
Guys, I seriously doubt changes to the way knockback occurs are likely to happen. It seems to me the easier a change is to implement, the likelier a change is to happen.
[/ QUOTE ]
Naw it's easy man, all they have to do is lower the magnitude of the knockback of these powers until it's low enough that it's knockdown on -1 cons and up.
Arc Salvo: Okay hold one sec guys, we can't just rush in blindly vs these Nemesis, they've got these ranged aoe's tha-
Teammate1(charging in): Shut up, Arc Salvo, you lame*$% Viewtiful Joe wannabe! What do you know?!
Teammate2(also charging): yeah, ST#& arc salvo u PWR RANGR U!
Arc Salvo: *sigh*
[ QUOTE ]
Guys, I seriously doubt changes to the way knockback occurs are likely to happen. It seems to me the easier a change is to implement, the likelier a change is to happen.
[/ QUOTE ]
I don't see how it's hard to change. Knockback scales with mob level. (AFAIK)
Hitting a level 20 minion with Power Thrust will send him a LOT farther than hitting an even level 50 minion. The same is true with Explosive Blast.
Just lower the knockback scale to 0 for even con minions (higher level minions can't exactly be less than 0 with knockback), then it'll increase on it's own from -1 to -49 level minions.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Hey guys, don't be so hard on Castle, he's a new dev, remember?
[/ QUOTE ]
Suckup!
[/ QUOTE ]
Maybe, but take a look at the buglist that he's shot down in months.
Anyway, my addition, and I'll keep it to two short topics in one combo: AR and Dev:
AR/Ignite: AR lacks a single-target chain. Like Electricity, they have only 3 single-target attacks, and 1 is a snipe. But with their thematic /Dev as secondary, they cannot fill that in with a melee attack. That leaves AR as really stuck in single-target situations. Ignite COULD fill this in... if it could be either used without an Immobilize, or if it could be used with an Immobilize. That means either:
1) Change Ignite to a single-target DoT attack. Like Flamethrower, but single-target, and DoT that cannot be escaped, like Flamethrower. Ignite stats (dam/rech/end/range/activ) to make up for the loss of AE damage compared to Flamethrower.
2) Fix AR so that the weapon is not put away when utilizing one-hand powers such as grenade tossing or activating immobs from other sets. That would allow Ignite to be chained with an Immob against a single target, without causing the weapon redraw delay with every single Ignite/Immob combo.
2 would be nice, but requires animation time. 1 would be by far the simplest solution. Personally, I'd prefer 1, because I'd like a chance to use it in PvP, and I'm sure that chaining Immobs with Ignite would be worthless in PvP.
Dev/Auto Turret: What is the purpose of this pet? Aggro pull? No, it doesn't do enough damage/taunt. Additional damage like VS? Fine, but then it should be mobile. Problem is that it adds little damage and little aggro control... which is fine, but then it shouldn't be on such a long timer, and cost so much End, and take so long to set up. It's a useful concept as it is, but not worth the stats. Either the stats need to change, or the concept.
1) Change stats: lower activation time, duration, recharge, and end cost. Then it's feasable to set it up pre-battle, and while it's a small benefit, it's not a great cost in terms of set-up time or Endurance. Not a great power, but worthwhile.
2) Change purpose: Make it mobile like a true pet. Make its attack be some cone attack, probably the henchman version of Full Auto would be fine. Probably a very high recharge and very low damage would be even better. The idea would be to have a mobile aggro pull on your side, that is constantly drawing aggro. Since its DPS wouldn't be great, it wouldn't out-aggro you ON YOUR TARGET, but it would draw unattached mobs to it by plinking them a bit. As compared to its current situation, where it may not draw an unattached mob simply because it doesn't shoot at him. A high ROF, even at low damage, and AoE, will cause aggro pull (weak, since it's not with a Taunt effect), and make it useful for its main purpose.
Either 1 or 2 seem relatively simple, as they shouldn't need much graphics work. I'm not sure about 2, as it would require attaching wheels or treads to the device, but it may not be very complicated.
Bah, suckup nothing. _Castle_'s doing the job we've been wanting out of the devs for the last year or so and doing a great job at it. He's developed a process and was asking us to follow it. Basically, someone makes a Consolidated Blaster Issues Thread and posts a laundry list of things to check. He then prints out that list, looks over each item and responds. This is far more efficient than scouring the boards for every little complaint thread. He's doing a lot of work for us and all he's asking is that we generate a list for him to make it easier for him. I don't think that's asking too much at all.
As far as my personal issues with my personal Blaster:
Energy Blast
Explosive Blast - I agree with most of the above. The knockback isn't much of an issue for me as it makes for a good defensive effect. It should however do more damage, as the scatter effect makes it impossible to stack AoE damage like other Blasters can.
Power Burst - The range is just too short. If it were just a little longer (even say 30') than range enhancements could do enough to make the power really worthwhile.
Fire Manipulation -
Fire Sword Circle - Animation lag, otherwise the power is fine.
Blazing Aura - I'm just not sure how a Blaster is intended to use this. Standing in melee long enough to do any significant DoT damage is simply suicide for a Blaster.
Hot Feet - a good power, but not a good 38 power. Moving this power earlier in the set (say, in place of Blazing Aura?) would make it MUCH more attractive. Also, the END cost is too high for the benefits this power provides.
I think the biggest issue with /Fire is that it simply lacks what Blasters need. It doesn't have any form of control or soft control to mitigate damage, and while it makes up for this with addition damage dealing powers, they generally lack the frontloaded damage of other secondaries. Adding Greater Fire Sword would go a long way towards fixing this set.
Instead of giving blasters mez prot, which the devs most likely won't do, how about a reduction in the amount of mezzing enemies in the high levels?
I can guess that they have a high number of mezzers in the higher levels in order to have a chance to hold scrappers and tankers. Well this hardly ever happens anyway that I've seen on my kat/regen or fire tanker, even with the reduced mag mez prot. So it makes the game miserable for blasters and doesn't achieve its intended (as far as I can guess) purpose. Nice.
I'd recommend trimming down the number of mezzers and making a few mezzers have a high mag mez. Mag 6 perhaps for some elite bosses or other selected mobs? For instance when a malta zeus hits you over the head, concept wise one could see where that could stun more heavily then say a beanbag.
This would result in a net less-time-spent-mezzed for blasters, and would mean that scrappers and tankers could feel occasionally slightly threatened by mez.
My guess is that even this is too much work for the devs as it appears they would like to think of CoH as being in the maintenance/bugfixing phase. But one can hope.
OK, _Castle_ asked for it, so we need to provide concrete information if our AT is ever going to get help.
Let's avoid arguments here and just post what we think needs to be looked at. Examples would include:[*]Powers that don't work as they are written up [*]Powers that work as written up, but are not useful [*]Power Sets that need a re-vamp (I'm looking at you, /Fire secondary) [*]Stuff that works in PvE but not PvP, or vice versa
I'd have about 6 pages to post about AR/Dev, but Revolver_Law's thread is just so much better than anything I could write, so I'll just link to it here.
Archery's substandard damage, the repeated /Dev secondary
nerfs, let's get it all out there.
Ideally, the tank will die precisely as everyone else starts fighting, allowing aggro to be spread evenly among the blaster. -seebs, "How to Suck at CoH/CoV" Guide