[ QUOTE ]
*shameless bump for great justice and a slight rant to boot*
Having returned to my blaster after a significant lay off... I was actually shocked to see how BAD the Archetype has become at least in the 40+ game. Defiance is, I hate to say it, a complete and utter joke. The bar is never correct and quite frankly Im so busy trying to stay alive that I can't tell whether its actually DOING a damn thing. (im sure it is... but I would much rather have double damage that I can trigger INSTANTLY for 30 seconds than a crappy power that MIGHT save me once in one hundred activations).
I mean come on... to get a truly NICE effect out of it I have to be what... 10% of my health?... Thats a ONE shot deal for a blaster at ANY level. Compared to say.... Stalkers AS.... Dominators special.... the fury bar for Brutes... I shudder to think of what other AT"s have gotten.
And what was that HP boost we got?...100hp total?... your kidding right?...
blergh.
The blaster community ought to be hanging its head in shame at the infighting going on. No one Cryptic is ignoring any pleas from this community for fixes. No one here can decide what NEEDS fixing in the first place. And when someone DOES say something a vocal minority come along and say the opposite.
blergh again.
Blasters get your head out of your collective arses and at LEAST agree that the AT as a whole needs to be looked at.... Than post constructively about what MIGHT be done to fix the class as a whole.
double blergh.
*dons fire retardant clothing*
P.S.
In the week since dusting of my toon at 44... He has YET to have gotten entirely out of debt... and remained so for longer than 30 minutes :P Keep this thread alive at least by stating how long your blaster has managed to remain debt free... View it as a way of not letting the thread get shuffled off and maybe getting Cryptic to notice.
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Lol my blaster has had max debt since i5 
.
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Castle, you know now that you've posted in two threads with this title, it's going to appear in every AT forum on the board right? 
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Actually, you're right. I think it's also against board policy to 'call out' a dev in your post title. I think that means I've been bad by actually responding. I'll have to stop doing that.
[/ QUOTE ]
I don't think this was so much calling you out as asking if you had the chance/time/opportunity to answer a question.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, calling out is more like " Dear Mr. Dev, why do you suck so much?" kind of thing. This thread is more of a request for a status update.
Heroes
Dysmal
Lumynous
Sam Steele
Pluck
Wile
Slagheap
Pressure Wave
Rhiannon Bel
Verified
Stellaric
Syd Mallorn
Villains
Jotunheim Skald
Saer Maen
Jen Corbae
Illuminance
Venator Arawn
Taiga Dryad
Tarranos
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Castle, you know now that you've posted in two threads with this title, it's going to appear in every AT forum on the board right?
[/ QUOTE ]
Actually, you're right. I think it's also against board policy to 'call out' a dev in your post title. I think that means I've been bad by actually responding. I'll have to stop doing that.
[/ QUOTE ]
Is it possible to make a post once a week in the Blaster to section to just give us an update on things?
Not a bad idea. Once a week might be a bit much, but I'd like to see a once per month developer update on whats going on with each AT. The more the powers guys at Cryptic talk to us, the less need there will be for threads pleading for information.
Heroes
Dysmal
Lumynous
Sam Steele
Pluck
Wile
Slagheap
Pressure Wave
Rhiannon Bel
Verified
Stellaric
Syd Mallorn
Villains
Jotunheim Skald
Saer Maen
Jen Corbae
Illuminance
Venator Arawn
Taiga Dryad
Tarranos
[ QUOTE ]
As for changing secondaries, when I was interviewing for this position over a year ago, this was the thing I mentioned I wanted to 'fix.' It's still something I want to do, but there are a couple technical and design philosophy problems to overcome. The design philosphy isn't easy to change, but it's hardly in the realm of impossibility. The tech side, though, is very much non-trivial. Since I've no control over programming schedules (for good reason, I might add) it is something I cannot do much of anything about.
FYI: my first COH character on Live was (is) a Fire/Fire Blaster.
[/ QUOTE ]
What design philosophy are you talking about? About the only type of power that doesn't appear in the Blaster secondaries anywhere are defensive powers, and the APPs render that a bit moot. There's even a couple debuffs in there of sorts. If it's the whole melee bit, I don't think most people want to see melee vanish entirely from the secondaries; blapping should be just as much an option as playing an Offender.
Still, glad to hear you guys are at least aware of the problems and looking at it, even if you admit that they're not easy problems and will probably take a while to deal with.
I still want Greater Fire Sword, though. 
C'mon, I promise nobody'll miss Blazing Aura.
Arc #41077 - The Men of State
Arc #48845 - Operation: Dirty Snowball
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[ QUOTE ]
Castle, you know now that you've posted in two threads with this title, it's going to appear in every AT forum on the board right?
[/ QUOTE ]
Actually, you're right. I think it's also against board policy to 'call out' a dev in your post title. I think that means I've been bad by actually responding. I'll have to stop doing that.
[/ QUOTE ]
I know calling out a devs is against the rules but there no other way to do this. If there is a way that a forum user can ask a specific dev a question and let everyone see the response and have a chance to respond to your response let us all know. Sort of kind of like that ask a dev series thing but actually get responses in a timely manner. Problem I had with the ask a dev series is that it took forever to get responses from that dev and half the time they picked the easy questions to answer. As I see it now the only way to fix alot of this stuff is to do 1 of 2 things. One is have Statesman to hire people for to be AT reps for each AT. Have them to have a manditory amount of hours on the message boards that is used to read and respond to our posts. I think a mininum of 5 hours a week on the message boards is not asking for too much. If this is done we all get what we want, you devs get a deeper understanding of the game from the player point of view, we players get a better understanding of what "The Vision" is. Options #2 is just make 10 more clones of _Castle_. Step 1 clone _Castle_. Step 2 ???. Step 3 Profit $$$. I am kind of partial to option #2 because I know in doing that we would definately get everything accomplished faster. If we get either option the game will be so much better than it is now.
Bump and Grind Bane/SoA
Kenja No Ishi Earth/Empathy Controller
Legendary Sannin Ninja/Pain Mastermind
Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
Ninja Ryukenden Kat/WP Scrapper
Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!
step 2 would be to quarantine each one in a different room with a compy....it isnt safe to hav eall thos e_Castle_s in one room, too much awesomeness can lead to fatalities
@TheBro
solo pvp?
Cooler than every single owl EVER.
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[vader]
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo!!!!
[/vader]
[/ QUOTE ]
Here you go: NOOO!
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FYI: my first COH character on Live was (is) a Fire/Fire Blaster.
[/ QUOTE ]
I knew there was a reason I respected you, you poor little Fire/Fire gimp.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[vader]
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo!!!!
[/vader]
[/ QUOTE ]
Here you go: NOOO!
[/ QUOTE ]
roflmao
AKA: Ath BS/SD Brute (Hero)
"The Fall and Rise of Athanatos" Arc ID: 521712
Outcast Cooler - "Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't."
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[vader]
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo!!!!
[/vader]
[/ QUOTE ]
Here you go: NOOO!
[/ QUOTE ]
roflmao
[/ QUOTE ]
/signed!!
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Are we finally going to see some Blaster fixes after I7?
[/ QUOTE ]
Fixes, yes. Complete redesigns of several powers and/or powersets, no. Unfortunately, what a lot of you are looking for is the later.
I'm (ever so slowly) going through the list you guys put up a while ago. I've referred a couple things to animation for bug fixes. Many things, I'm still scratching my head of how to fix in such a way that they are useful -- snipes are a good example of this. Simply increasing the base damage is dangerous, and we can't make it exempt from ED. So, I'm thinking of workarounds, which I will toss upstairs once fleshed out. Then, if it is approved, I'll be able to make the changes.
That process happens with each and every change (read: not a bug fix) I do.
EDIT: Adding a couple things.
I put in a fix for Endurance Drain that I think you guys will like. It is in I7, because it was a huge amount of data changes.
As for changing secondaries, when I was interviewing for this position over a year ago, this was the thing I mentioned I wanted to 'fix.' It's still something I want to do, but there are a couple technical and design philosophy problems to overcome. The design philosphy isn't easy to change, but it's hardly in the realm of impossibility. The tech side, though, is very much non-trivial. Since I've no control over programming schedules (for good reason, I might add) it is something I cannot do much of anything about.
FYI: my first COH character on Live was (is) a Fire/Fire Blaster.
[/ QUOTE ]
*falls over*
*reads it again still in shock*
[/ QUOTE ]
I wouldn't get too excited. in fact.... I don't see any reason to get excited at all.
sometime after i7. could mean sometime after i8
i9
i10
ii11
1i2
[censored] never.
believe it when you see it.
[ QUOTE ]
What design philosophy are you talking about?
[/ QUOTE ]
I imagine it may be described as such:
Blaster secondaries should have some self-buffing capacity, but not so much as to make help from support ATs moot.
The buff/debuff capacities you mention don't scale anywhere near as well as Defender/Controller support, nor should they. My suspicion is that he's referring to the point that not all Blaster secondaries are comparable in terms of utility.
Let's use Castle's /Fire example, and compare it to /Energy, probably the best performing secondary set. Energy gets great utility powers in addition to great blaps. In contrast, Fire's utility is relatively limited, and has reasonably mediocre blapping potential, as well. In this particular comparison, Energy clearly outstrips Fire -- we take that for granted around here.
I imagine that Castle's point about "design philosophy" is about the fundamental limitations of the Blaster secondaries -- there's a relatively limited pool of buff/debuffs that the Devs were willing to give Blasters. However, some sets simply received those abilities disproportionately. For instance, it seems the Devs substantially overestimated the utility of Hot Feet -- the Slow might be useful; but that utility is overwhelmingly mitigated by the PBAoE range and the aggro-generating DoT component.
I love the current ability for a blaster player to play a balster, a blapper, or a blastroller. as long as that stays, ill be happy as heck
@TheBro
solo pvp?
Cooler than every single owl EVER.
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FYI: my first COH character on Live was (is) a Fire/Fire Blaster.
[/ QUOTE ]
GIMP!
[/ QUOTE ]
He might have played it back when the combo was not yet nerfed. It worked really well when you could pump it with 6 damage enhancements, and team up with a controller/tank to keep the spawn tightly grouped. That was like ... pre-I3, I think
No... it was gimped back then too. I keep hearing people go "it's great when you have a tank.... a controller.... a blah blah."
If a set's effectiveness Is predicated on having another PATICULAR AT around...and then one must assume that said archetyoe is slotted well and knows what the [censored] they're doing...(rarer than you think) then it's gimped. Sure you might go empaths and forcers need blah blah.... but those AT's are team focused and bring a lot to any team. I've never seen a PuG go wait.... we gotta get a fire/fire blaster before we start.
Not paticularly needed on teams..... and relegated to none boss targets untill level 43 or so when you can get a decent hold slotted up.... gimp. If there was ever a time when it wasn't gimped it was that small sliver of time where the blaster version of burn had status protection. DECIDELY not gimped.
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FYI: my first COH character on Live was (is) a Fire/Fire Blaster.
[/ QUOTE ]That makes two of us.
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I love the current ability for a blaster player to play a balster, a blapper, or a blastroller. as long as that stays, ill be happy as heck
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm sure people have done it, but my elec/elec wasn't terribly effective as a blaster. Just not enough blasts. Now as a blaper/blaptroller he pretty much rocks - admittedly less so since they nerfed End Drain and ED neutered his 6-slotted hover, but he's still lots of fun.
-CC
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Simply increasing the base damage is dangerous, and we can't make it exempt from ED.
[/ QUOTE ]
Wait... you guys can make powers exemp from ED?!?
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Simply increasing the base damage is dangerous, and we can't make it exempt from ED.
[/ QUOTE ]
Wait... you guys can make powers exemp from ED?!?
[/ QUOTE ]
Nope. That's why I said "Can't." Well, actually, we could ask for new code to do that, but it isn't really something we want currently.
[ QUOTE ]
Nope. That's why I said "Can't." Well, actually, we could ask for new code to do that, but it isn't really something we want currently.
[/ QUOTE ]
Awww.
So there's no hope for Hover then
Enjoying every AT in the game.
Remember the Golden Rule: Skill > Build
Leader of the True Blues on Liberty
[ QUOTE ]
So there's no hope for Hover then
[/ QUOTE ]
Hope for Hover would be to increase its base speed. Really that's a better solution than making anything exempt from ED anyway.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So there's no hope for Hover then
[/ QUOTE ]
Hope for Hover would be to increase its base speed. Really that's a better solution than making anything exempt from ED anyway.
[/ QUOTE ]
Hover is not going to change. It's pretty clear that they are more than happy with Enhancement Depreciation. If a few powers suffer, that's the cost for making the entire game more "balanced".
Not based on anything concrete, but the intimation I've been getting the past few dev comments is that we will not see any new blaster secondaries, ever. Too much trouble, not enough time for too few players.
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Are we finally going to see some Blaster fixes after I7?
[/ QUOTE ]
Fixes, yes. Complete redesigns of several powers and/or powersets, no. Unfortunately, what a lot of you are looking for is the later.
I'm (ever so slowly) going through the list you guys put up a while ago. I've referred a couple things to animation for bug fixes. Many things, I'm still scratching my head of how to fix in such a way that they are useful -- snipes are a good example of this. Simply increasing the base damage is dangerous, and we can't make it exempt from ED. So, I'm thinking of workarounds, which I will toss upstairs once fleshed out. Then, if it is approved, I'll be able to make the changes.
That process happens with each and every change (read: not a bug fix) I do.
EDIT: Adding a couple things.
I put in a fix for Endurance Drain that I think you guys will like. It is in I7, because it was a huge amount of data changes.
As for changing secondaries, when I was interviewing for this position over a year ago, this was the thing I mentioned I wanted to 'fix.' It's still something I want to do, but there are a couple technical and design philosophy problems to overcome. The design philosphy isn't easy to change, but it's hardly in the realm of impossibility. The tech side, though, is very much non-trivial. Since I've no control over programming schedules (for good reason, I might add) it is something I cannot do much of anything about.
FYI: my first COH character on Live was (is) a Fire/Fire Blaster.
[/ QUOTE ]
*Points at Poison Trap in the /Poison secondary*