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I have a strong opinion on the topic. I have deleted one character over level 20, I think, ever. It was a L29 fire/dev blaster.
My other fire/* blasters are fire/ice at 35 and 19, fire/elec at 50, fire/en at 50 . So it's not the primary.
A blaster generally does about 50% more damage (when free to go postal at any time for no reason) than a scrapper using their primary and secondary combined. This is based on almost 150 levels of Force Field defender.
A blaster using their primary ONLY can do, maybe, 10% more damage than a Scrapper. The rest comes from melee attacks, Build Up, etc. - none of which Devices has.
Devices mostly has Trip Mines and Time Bombs, for damage. These take a high-damage-per-second class and add a lot of seconds sitting around doing no damage.
It is possible that two /Dev blasters can get good results by setting one Time Bomb each, in the same way that two Elec/ Blasters can get good results by both using Short Circuit at the same time.
But I didn't stick around to try it.
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/devices is a lot there for fun. I would never do a toon blaster who didn't get at least aim or build up. AR is a nice set, its best paired IMO with ice manipulation.
As far as Fulmen's argument, they REALLY need, and about time, they gave targetting drone a 40% damage buff to it. Would end a ton of complaints about the set, especially in the later levels.
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A permanant Damage boost to targeting drone would lead to endless complaints of how OP it is. And 40% is jsut to much of a damage boost to give perma also. About 25% would be more balanced. Also its to hit would have to be reduced to about 4% also as the power would have to provide the same overall over time effectiveness as Buildup. And it gets a 13.9% To Hit Continuously to compensate for it not adding Damage.
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I think it should be a permanent damage boost, but at a reasonable level. Figure AIM gives a 50% damage boost for 10 seconds every minute. If you really enhance AIM so that it can be used every 30 seconds, you're getting a roughly 15% or so damage boost overall. A 15% damage boost isn't overpowering since all damage boosts are based off of base damage, not enhanced damage.
Arc ID#30821, A Clean Break
The only problem with defeating the Tsoo is that an hour later, you want to defeat them again!
"Life is just better boosted!" -- LadyMage
"I'm a big believer in Personal Force Field on a blaster. ... It's your happy place." -- Fulmens
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I have a strong opinion on the topic. I have deleted one character over level 20, I think, ever. It was a L29 fire/dev blaster.
My other fire/* blasters are fire/ice at 35 and 19, fire/elec at 50, fire/en at 50 . So it's not the primary.
A blaster generally does about 50% more damage (when free to go postal at any time for no reason) than a scrapper using their primary and secondary combined. This is based on almost 150 levels of Force Field defender.
A blaster using their primary ONLY can do, maybe, 10% more damage than a Scrapper. The rest comes from melee attacks, Build Up, etc. - none of which Devices has.
Devices mostly has Trip Mines and Time Bombs, for damage. These take a high-damage-per-second class and add a lot of seconds sitting around doing no damage.
It is possible that two /Dev blasters can get good results by setting one Time Bomb each, in the same way that two Elec/ Blasters can get good results by both using Short Circuit at the same time.
But I didn't stick around to try it.
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/devices is a lot there for fun. I would never do a toon blaster who didn't get at least aim or build up. AR is a nice set, its best paired IMO with ice manipulation.
As far as Fulmen's argument, they REALLY need, and about time, they gave targetting drone a 40% damage buff to it. Would end a ton of complaints about the set, especially in the later levels.
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A permanant Damage boost to targeting drone would lead to endless complaints of how OP it is. And 40% is jsut to much of a damage boost to give perma also. About 25% would be more balanced. Also its to hit would have to be reduced to about 4% also as the power would have to provide the same overall over time effectiveness as Buildup. And it gets a 13.9% To Hit Continuously to compensate for it not adding Damage.
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I think it should be a permanent damage boost, but at a reasonable level. Figure AIM gives a 50% damage boost for 10 seconds every minute. If you really enhance AIM so that it can be used every 30 seconds, you're getting a roughly 15% or so damage boost overall. A 15% damage boost isn't overpowering since all damage boosts are based off of base damage, not enhanced damage.
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Um, aim is a 62.5% damage boost for starters, and much higher of a to hit buff. And having the toggle damage boost is better overall, by purpose, like all the others, because you are sacrificing burst damage for consistency.
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Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server
Don't know about Assault/Devices ...but have enjoyed every minute getting to (and continuing playing my) level 50 Energy/Devices blaster.
In a team, he's fun to play. And when I solo, he's among the most strategic of AT toons around, as well.
I made him my sci-fi toon - and gave him power combos that I never use anywhere else, including Hover/Teleport (which now doesn't even cost an extra slot if you have the Vet reward for it.)
As with all ATs in this game, IMHO, it all depends if you enjoy playing your toon, your concept. Try it out. How else will you get to enjoy the biggest feature of the game - ALTitis? 
Hey AncientSpirit, I was thinking of doing a Energy/Devices before I did my Fire/Devices, but I didn't think the KB would mesh well with the Traps.
Just out of curiousity how does it play? Might make it my next Blaster after I finish up the Fire/Devices.
"Yes, winning all the time can be boring."
-Knight_Chill
"It's amazing how well you can put up with endurance issues if you hide them under a large enough pile of bodies."
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Go AR/Energy you'll be happier trust me. I have a 50 AR/Dev and it just sits. I only have a couple of the powers from the secondary because I find on teams they are useless. This includes all the powers that seem fun. Trip Mine, Time Bomb and Gun Drone are all excluded from my build because they slow me down or they slow down my team. So more or less its my rifle and targeting drone and thats about it. Go with energy, plenty of synergy with boost range and cone attacks. Plus you will get build up and a few super hard hitting melee attacks.
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Hey AncientSpirit, I was thinking of doing a Energy/Devices before I did my Fire/Devices, but I didn't think the KB would mesh well with the Traps.
Just out of curiousity how does it play? Might make it my next Blaster after I finish up the Fire/Devices.
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Energy/devices makes for a very fun blaster. And actually the knockback meshes better with "devices" because when enemies are being stubborn you can knock them into the mines you've laid down. That really only pertains to trip mine, as you're not going to interrupt time bomb's use, and the kb doesnt affect any other power in the set.
I have a fire/dev also which i love. But i am very interested in running the energy/dev for said reasons. It is a very fun build, the only thing that bugs me is not having an aoe attack that doesnt cause knockback when on teams. But caltrops + the knockback makes it one of the safest blasters. The build also lets me pick up taser which is an interesting power, for fun but has its uses like spectral daemon lord LTs.
The only recourse for me not doing it is that i also wanted to try energy/ice for shiver + knockback and snagging a melee attack in there. Of all the nukes as well i'm a big believer that nova kinda needs build up too, to make sure it kills off everything otherwise you just end up with a group thats not killed and is scattered all over (lts of course minnions will clearly be dead either way) But that depends on what level you're fighting and what enemy types.
Also that i wanted to try an arch/dev, and don't think i'd want to do more than 2 /dev characters.
Plasmic's Guide to Sonic/Mental
Plasmic's Guide to Regeneration
Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server
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And it gets a 13.9% To Hit Continuously to compensate for it not adding Damage.
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Apparently you haven't read about the recent nerf to targeting drone?
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What they nerfed my targeting drone ?
I adore my arch/dev character, I really need to level her. >_>
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And it gets a 13.9% To Hit Continuously to compensate for it not adding Damage.
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Apparently you haven't read about the recent nerf to targeting drone?
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What they nerfed my targeting drone ?
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Nope, its still 13.9, they nurfed the Epic version. THe Devices version is still the one you know and love.
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And it gets a 13.9% To Hit Continuously to compensate for it not adding Damage.
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Apparently you haven't read about the recent nerf to targeting drone?
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What they nerfed my targeting drone ?
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Nope, its still 13.9, they nurfed the Epic version. THe Devices version is still the one you know and love.
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Thanks for the update. I am leveling up another Arch/Dev targeting drone + archerys inherent pretty much means no real need to slot extra accuracies in the primary.
A few notes on /devices:
1. By using TD, you can remove 1 acc from powers, and add another recharge or such instead.
2. CD can save you from having to pick stealth, and combined w/ a stealth iO, gives you a nice edge in picking and choosing which battles you want to start and where.
3. Caltrops is a very effective tool to control the flow of combat; you can lay down a patch to cover your tracks or to steer enemies elsewhere.
4. Web grenade, although it doesn't do damage, applies a decent -recharge which reduces incoming damage. The immob, -fly, and -jump is good too.
5. I don't like taser; it is a stun, but it's got a pretty long recharge and a short range.
6. Timbomb needs work; it needs to be changed into a command-detonated bomb.
7. Tripmine can be devastating - though you have to pull and lure enemies into it...
8. Gun drone isn't horrible, but the summon animation needs to be shortened, and it needs another attack to chain better.
9. Smoke grenade is skippable, IMO. If you don't have or can't wait to get a stealth IO, then it can sort of do the trick. The tohit debuff is kinda small, but it's main purpose is so you can sneak past enemies or position yourself better.
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8. Gun drone isn't horrible, but the summon animation needs to be shortened, and it needs another attack to chain better.
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I disagree. That long animation acts like a mini-aim for increasing my attack chain's damage. 40% may not seem like much, but on an ar/dev especially it can mean the difference between slaughtering an entire spawn and getting slaughtered by a bunch of guys at 10% health.
He was speaking on its cast time, which i totally agree on. It should summon with a wave of the hand or whatever much like bots do for a MM.
Likewise with trip mine and time bomb. Theyre not bad powers, but the setup is what KILLS being a devices blaster.
They need to make trip mine work like proximity mines on the old 007 game for goldeneye, just aim and throw it down like you do caltrops. Nice and quick 1ish second animation.
As for time bomb, that should have trip mines 4 second set up time, and have the wait time shortened to at least 10 seconds if not 5. Do not forget with that long of a time it is not gaining any buff you have before you cast it still.
These changes would improve devices use GREATLY on teams.
Plasmic's Guide to Sonic/Mental
Plasmic's Guide to Regeneration
Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server
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And a perma damage buff on it would NOT be overpowered. Many sets get just that in a perma-able form. Claws, Dual blades, heck ever super strength gets an 80% perma damage buff. For a set like devices where the buff wouldnt even carry over to anything in its own set that is justified easily IMO.
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The only problem with these examples is that these perma damage buffs come from the attack set. As such those sets are balanced around them. Without perma-Rage, an SS tank is pretty much bringing a pillow to a gun fight.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love a damage bonus in TD, because /Dev is easily my favourite blaster secondary, but what would we have to give up to get it. The Devs are (probably) not going to give out something like that for free.
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And a perma damage buff on it would NOT be overpowered. Many sets get just that in a perma-able form. Claws, Dual blades, heck ever super strength gets an 80% perma damage buff. For a set like devices where the buff wouldnt even carry over to anything in its own set that is justified easily IMO.
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The only problem with these examples is that these perma damage buffs come from the attack set. As such those sets are balanced around them. Without perma-Rage, an SS tank is pretty much bringing a pillow to a gun fight.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love a damage bonus in TD, because /Dev is easily my favourite blaster secondary, but what would we have to give up to get it. The Devs are (probably) not going to give out something like that for free.
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How about the sets already HIDEOUSLY long set up times which are INTERUPTIBLE.
yes, powers like those are in the primary set. But with blasters, their secondary is really truly closest to an offset of their primary. As such, the damage buff would work the same to all primaries. And as it stands already all the pets of devices would not get the buff anyways as its a toggle damage buff and the cycling time of the buff would not last long enough to affect them. Therefore the damage boost directly only affects the primary of the blaster.
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I still like the idea of CD providing a hide stance, like stalkers and banes, and having the snipe do more damage. Maybe let the other powers have a small crit from hide.
My ice/dev "Stalking the Stalker" "3yrs old" is nice i never tryed a assault rifle and if it works out for you let me know i only use mine for pvp and love to hear then cry noob when i've had mine befor everyone started to roll devs for pvp'n WEB NADE em to death with a lil ice on the side!! Mines are bla if you dont have em trap "IE towers or under something if your gonna tp foe em"
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He was speaking on its cast time, which i totally agree on. It should summon with a wave of the hand or whatever much like bots do for a MM.
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The balancing of Defiance boosts is the animation time. Gun Drone gives a 40% Defiance boost due to its long animation.
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Originally Posted by Back Alley Brawler
Did you just use "casual gamer" and "purpled-out warshade" in the same sentence?
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Which i don't think anyone would complain having those powers lose a lot of their defiance if targetting drone gave a constant damage buff.
And its not the animation that gives gun drone the high defiance boost, well partially, but its mostly its insanely long recharge when trying to use it in that fashion.
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Which i don't think anyone would complain having those powers lose a lot of their defiance if targetting drone gave a constant damage buff.
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No But as others said I would complain about the fact that TD would have to lose some of the acc bonus, otherwise it would be overpowered even in a set like devices. And like the cloak changes to add a stealth strike it's trying to shoehorn the set into something it's not meant to be.
Is it stupid that TD only gives a bonus to AR snipe? Yes no disagreement. But acc and damage and +perception in one power? Let's not try to turn it into the old smoke grenade here.
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And its not the animation that gives gun drone the high defiance boost, well partially, but its mostly its insanely long recharge when trying to use it in that fashion.
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Since my ice/dev is pulling off this plan. Gun drone with three 35 IO recharge + any three large global recharge bonuses (three entropic chaos sets in my case) = perma drone. Throw in hasten and a few more bonuses and you can get two up at once for a few seconds. Pricy but doable.
You missed the point, i never said the POWER itself cant be perma'd. But using it for its defiance bonus the power recharges crazy long as that use, especially with its set up time.
Secondly, i've explained how t-drone could risk-free get the buff. Especially considering how it does absolutely nothing for the actual set of devices and only goes on to the primary of the blaster for one. Taking some of those defiance bonus values from the other said powers would help to balance if you had any issue on how this would work.
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Even if TD gave a hefty 40% damage buff, getting another 40% from GD's set up would still not overpower the set.
In all truth, gun drone, Trip mine, and time bomb are actually UNDERPOWERED as far as the defiance boost is concerned, because they are considered 'aoe effects'. a lot of things in the devices set are undervalued, probably from fear on the dev's part about being 'overpowered', devices was brutally stripped a long time ago the same way that energy manipulation and melee were brutally stripped recently...
Devices are far, far overdue for a massive buff.
technically, time bomb should give a (1 second=6%, x31 seconds time from activation start to actual damage) +186% damage buff. or at LEAST (16 seconds) a 96% damage buff. a build-up that takes as long as it does to set up should come close to build-up damage boost.
The really crippling thing about devices (and snipes) is that 'interrupt time' is not factored into the defiance modifier.
Having played only to L10 on my Nrg/Dev Blaster, I can't say much, but so far I'm very disappointed. The Web Grenade has appalling accuracy. The Taser has such a short range that I'm actually in melee to many foes and it has about a 3 second disorient, making it useless. Targeting drone is handy, but I don't notice much difference yet.
My goal with this character was to emulate Iron Man in his earlier days (when he did a lot of tinkering in battle). It really doesn't capture that feeling at all.
I wonder if another variety of Devices power set might be designed that is more of a gadgeteering set. You know, the kind of thing Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man and Batman seem to do a lot of?
That is a big issue i've been having lately. I think taser is a very cool looking power, but its range is just far too short. It should have about a 40ft range.
Then of course taser, and all ST stuns need their duration/rech values reconfigured. Compared to ST holds which are a much better effect than a stun, and less resisted rechare faster, and are much easier to stack with not far off of a base duration making it much easier to stack with itself.
Web grenade, meh to the accuracy since the set gets targetting drone.
The devices set as a whole just has so many areas where it needs improved on. Its neat, its just not practical and in the later game that hurts it a lot and takes a good portion of its fun away.
Plasmic's Guide to Sonic/Mental
Plasmic's Guide to Regeneration
Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server
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they can just as easily put the damage boost in cloaking device but it would make far less sense in there.
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Not if there was a stealth strike component in each blast.
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If they do this change, I'm coining the word Blalker