Buff AR

Here's another one that popped into my head.

Change ignite to be a far better fire based AoE, similar to my original suggestion.

Change flamethrower to be the sets extreme damage ST attack. Make it a really fast burst of fire that burns the enemy for good up front damage with like an 80% chance for extra DoT.

Add more R's to the end and have the gun shoot pirates.

See my Guides and Tutorials

When did the Archetype and Powers board fully lay its claim as the whine board? Every thread anymore is whining about something.

Especially with things like S/L whining. Do you have any idea how many sets in this game are dominated by one or both?

The things that change are usually animation times and damage modifiers, both of which have already been addressed with AR and therefore unlikely to see anything more than minor tweaks.

Most of this thread is just whining because AR isn't the big dog. Its not that it is grossly underperforming, but whining because it isn't grossly dominating. If you're not doing the most damage, on +4/8 then the set is the sucks. That mentality has never gotten anyone anywhere with the devs, and for good reason.

Most of this whining is inaccurate, too. M30 Grenade and Buckshot are still well in line with the AOE and cone powers of other sets where outside a handful of clear outliers, there isn't a lot of difference. The cone and AOE powers in the Blaster sets are all very similar across the board. Many of the AOE powers in blaster sets also have knock effect (M30, Explosive Blast, Explosive Arrow, Psionic Tornado).

The animation times of AR were reduced from exceedingly long to just kinda long, but with the appropriate defiance modifiers on them. Ignite is still a ridiculous ST power that is easily leveraged due to the fact most of the Blaster secondaries have a mandatory Immob who themselves do very underrated damage. It is simply a matter of playing AR to its strengths rather than whining that you don't play it quite like you do the other sets.

The "problems" in the end game aren't with AR, it is with the other sets in the game and with IOs (a set like Archery who has its damage loaded primarily into one power is better off with the high recharge IOs/teams bring even though the set is in line balancewise with similar sets). AR isn't too slow, teams are too fast. Once you hit the 30s, particularly with the rampant overusage of Emps and Kins, the game becomes an absolute joke because teams move through content too fast. And if teams aren't blitzing through content like it is irrelevant then they whine. I've lost count how many perfectly good teams were advertising or breaking up because it they didn't have what they "need". They're whiners.

And so is this thread.

Spend your time showcasing how AR is grossly underperforming the bulk of blaster sets, and not just Archery post ROA slotting or Fire. That'll be a difficult task because most of ARs powers are shared throughout the various blaster sets. The blaster sets are well balanced around its metrics, but the game is in some sense fundamentally flawed in terms of min-max IO builds and lazy players who want trivial content they can steamroll.

I wasn't whining at all and neither is anyone else. I don't know why you came into this thread with so much negativity. Furthermore, if you've been reading the thread or even the original post you'd realize that many people have stated what they feel needs tweaking with AR. No one is asking for a major buff, or anything of the sort. Also, you need to extend your thinking of AR beyond that of just blasters, since that's all I saw you mention in your post.

As for using the immob+ignite, I've gone down that route on an AR/Traps, and it was a pretty awesome combo...SOLO and before the recharge got nerfed. Solo it's still a decent technique if you don't mind the 4 second long animation time but trying to use it on a team is a complete waste of time. You'd be better of using any other AoE attack and letting them + all of the rest of the teams AoE damage to kill everything.

Ignite is only decent for soloing and a total waste of time on a team unless you're fighting AVs. I agree with you on the point that IO'd out builds make this game trivial and make average sets that can't perform as well seem like weaksauce even if they are fine. However, that's not the point of this thread.

Ooh, I like that idea. Bump up Buckshot's chance to knockback, but reduce the mag to knockdown.

Ar needs (like some people have already said):

Faster DOT for FT.
Less kb and more kd.
Less End for FA and FT.
TRACER ROUND VISUALS!
Up the extremely lame target cap for FA.

As for the mediocre single target damage, I just forced myself to six slot snipe with an Acc, 2 Interrupts, 1 Recharge (plus Hasten) and 2 Damage and can use it in a brawl most times even. Slug gets 6 slots too: an Acc, 3 Damage and 2 recharge (+ Hasten).

Why do we need to have KB changed to KD? We're Blasters, not Tankers: we can just nuke it from orbit, so to speak. This does make a difference, too... there are resistances to KB in the game, and I'd rather know that those powers are going to knockback, rather than wonder if they will or not.

It's not hard to leverage the KB, either... you can fire off an M30, than a Buckshot, and you'll hit the whole cone (as the mob just had to be in the cone when you activated). Same thing with M30 then Full Auto. You cut down on return fire and still hit everything.

I like the idea of tracers for Full Auto... it is an over the top power (hard not imagine Rambo while spraying those bullets), but that would be a fun addition. If you can convince BAB it would be worth it and it wasn't too time consuming. I think I'd rather the cone was a bit wider... even 5 degrees more would make it easier to line things up. I'm pretty good at it, but I'm still amazed at the times where a mob is out of the cone.