I think we should take everything out of this and consolidate all the information for each set and power within it and post it into a new thread. Would help with the information sifting and would be easier for Castle to read.
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I think we should take everything out of this and consolidate all the information for each set and power within it and post it into a new thread. Would help with the information sifting and would be easier for Castle to read.
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I agree, although as a suggestion thread, it's a bit different than a bugfix thread.
The overall format might be something like this.
I. Balance Intentions - A list of balance changes that we would like to accomplish with Blasters, all suggestions will be pegged to one or more balance intentions it meets, with no judgements made as to whether or not that intention is advisable (we figure you will do that CASTLE).
A. Increase Blaster Total Damage potential
B. Increase Total Damage Blasters can deal at range
C. Eliminate Blaster need to close to melee
D. Increase AE damage contribution of Blasters in typical combats
E. Increase survivability of Blasters
F. Give Blasters a secondary role in a team (other than Blapping)
G. Replace Defiance with a more appealing inherent
H. Make range a real "defense"
Etc., Etc., Etc.[/list]II. Overall Blaster Fixes - A list of fixes that do not touch on individual powers but on things like inherents and game mechanics that will resolve some Blaster issues
1. Increase base BI of blasters to 1.2 to = that of Scrappers (A, B, C, D)
2. Replace Defiance with a power that increases or decreases the damage delivered based on range instead of health (B, C, G)
3. Migrate Blaster PVP inherent to PVE (irresistable damage) (B, C, D, F)
Etc., Etc., Etc.[/list]III. Individual Power/Powerset Fixes - A list of fixes that do touch on individual powers.
A. Primary - AR
1. Increase range on Buckshot
Etc. Etc.[/list]
/signed
It looks good Pilcrow
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Defiance currently gives +dam and +acc as we get beat down. The problem is that in the later game we do not get to use it that often cause we can't take more then a couple solid hits from even a minion.
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Just another thought I had in regards to Defiance.
If I understand Defiance correctly, it can produce up to a +500% damage buff, kicking in at a very low damage buff around 30% health and then ramping up to insane levels as you creep into the red.
I don't think we'll see defiance getting replaced or getting a huge boost in capabilities. The devs are "happy" with it. But I do think that there are things they aren't happy about with Blasters and that those could as easily be housed in defiance as anywhere else.
So, here's the suggestion.
What if Defiance offered a boost to range when your health was high. Make it the mirror image of Defiance such that, at full health, your range increase is maxxed out, and once your health is below 70%, your range gets no bonus at all.
Something like a 50% range boost at 100% health, going down to 0% range boost at 70% health would do a lot to help blasters without overpowering them, IMO.
I don't think it's a complete solution in and of itself, mind you. Just a good piece.
Looking for commentary, notions, reasons it won't work.
If they added a Negative Energy Blaster, I would be happy.
I kinda' like this but how is that being defiant?
See you said it yourself, the devs are happy with it as is.
Your suggestion, while leaving the name totally changes the power and its concept.
The name doesn't make it, what it does makes it. After all, the players changed the name of it to Defiance, that wasn't chosen by the devs.
The power is what it does, not what it's called. 
Anyway, defiance sucks. I don't care if the devs are happy with it. I'm a paying player and I'm NOT happy with it. Whatever dev is being the stubborn mule about it needs to get over it, admit (it's a nice concept but) it is flawed in practice and change it to something more useful.
It'd be one thing if it was 1/2 the at's had situational inherints and half didn't, as it is though only a couple AT's have situation inherints 'gimping' them compared to the others.
Khedlian inherints are only good in human forms on teams. This I PERSONALLY don't count because the whole concept behind Kheldians. They were also (IMO) built to support the team mentality being thrown at us all the time by devs.
Blaster: Defiance - while usable on/off a team it's extremely situational and uncontrollable. It doesn't do anything to prevent your death. I can literally count on ONE hand the times defiance has kept me alive. This is counting ALL my blasters. I have 5 of them.
Defender: Vigilance. Useless off a team. Useless if your team is at full health nullifying their inherint.
No one else has an inherint this 'unbalanced'.
All they bloody need to do to fix Defiance is ramp up the scaling. In other words, let it make a difference sooner. Let it make a bigger difference, sooner.
People cried in beta about Scourge. What'd they do? Change it so that it starts kicking in at 50% health at a small percentage increasing from there to like 100% at what, 25% (or is it 10%) health? Before it ONLY kicked in at the 25% (or 10 again I forgot) range. The people cried, the devs listened AND delivered. A lot of people didn't even like scourge. They wanted something more... corrupting. The devs wanted it. There was compromise!
Yet we still get ignored when we say Defiance is inherintly flawed. Where'd the compromise? (DEVS SAY: We like it but here's a bone.) It's a bloody glass nuke. IF you can deliver it it does massive damage but there's as much chance trying to deploy it will kill you too.
/rantoff
As an interested ovserver, I'd like to ask some questions and make some comments. I don't mean any of this as flames or to be rabble rousing.
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A. Increase Blaster Total Damage potential
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Blasters already have tremendous damage potential. Why does it need to be boosted further? Blasters are already doing more burst damage than any other AT in the entire game.
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B. Increase Total Damage Blasters can deal at range
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I understand you are looking for an incentive to get blasters to quit blapping, but allowing them to do rediculous damage at range isn't the answer. If they do the same damage at range that they do currently in melee, things will be even more broken.
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C. Eliminate Blaster need to close to melee
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This I totally agree with. I disagree with the idea of increasing your ranged damage in order to facilitate this, however.
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D. Increase AE damage contribution of Blasters in typical combats
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This sounds fine to me. Unfortunately, the devs wanted to nerf fast AE leveling, so placed a limit on the number of targets an AE attack can effect. I don't think they're going to change their minds on that score.
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E. Increase survivability of Blasters
[/ QUOTE ] Blasters seem very survivable currently. Those who run in to Blap take risks, yes, but those who stand back and actually blast have a very high survivability. Boosting blaster survivability (such as increasing health or giving them more defensive powers) would completely break any balance between them and the melee ATs
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F. Give Blasters a secondary role in a team (other than Blapping)
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Lets face it, Blapping isn't a secondary role for the blasters who do it, it is their primary role. Many times blasters have said that the primary role of a blaster is to deal damage...to those ends, blasters are constantly looking for ways to deal more damage (as are all ATs). What role would you suggest blasters play in addition to this? Depending on the build, blasters can already have controll, slow, knockback, defense, etc. Which AT would you suggest they start infringing upon as a secondary?
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G. Replace Defiance with a more appealing inherent
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A lot of blasters don't like the idea of having to lower their health to get the most damage and accuracy, but there are a lot who do as well. Blasters have a real advantage with defiance in the way it allows you to front load even MORE damage into your attacks. Corrupters on the villain side don't have that advantage. Their damage is back loaded, which means they have to nearly have something dead before they get any benefit. Sure, you are running a risk by keeping your health low, but the damage output and corresponding accuracy is substantial.
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H. Make range a real "defense"
[/ QUOTE ] If you can't be hit, you are pretty well defended. The majority of NPCs deal substantially less damage with their ranged attacks than they do with melee. Range seems to be a defense in that regard. In PvP, no melee based AT can hit you if you maintain your range (except spines or claws, and even then they have a very limited number of ranged attacks). How is range NOT a defense currently?
The post you are responding to is a suggested format for summarizing a thread of buff suggestions much the way we kind of have a standard format for "issues" threads.
The list of reasons is not meant to encompass all goals I personally find reasonable, but all goals members of the Blaster community find reasonable. By attaching your suggestion to certain goals, you make it easier for the devs to find the suggetions that match their goals. If they look at the goal list and think "I agree with goals B, D, and F", then they can focus in on suggestions that include B. D, and F in their goal list. If they also think "E is NEVER going to happen", they can skip right by suggestions that include E.
Since we, as players, can't know which goals the devs will and will not embrace, nor can we all agree as to which goals are the right ones, the best we can do is state our goals, state our suggestions and link the two so the devs don't have to read every single suggestion in order to get to the suggestions that align with THEIR goals.
My personal goals are suggestions are listed in the link in my siggy. But we're trying to figure a way to summarize the entire communities input so the devs can use it without being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of it.
Not true, but the redname post keeps this post from falling off the boards, so there's no need to bump it to keep it alive.
I don't think any of us expect any of this to hit in I7, so odds are Castle will be circling back in a month or two, until then, there's not much to do unless one of the other threads sparks a new idea worth posting here.