Simple and just change for energy blast!

Just recently (I believe it was i15?) Power Push from the Energy Assault set on dominaters was given a damage component to it. It does 86 damage in pve (about half way between Power Bolt and Power Blast) and 110 damage in pvp (once again, between Power Bolt and Power Blast). Now, this was a welcomed change which increased the usefulness of this Knockback power. It was once a pure utility power and they turned it into a fourth blast, increasing the appeal of energy assault because it now had 4 blasts.

Now, this change was implemented to increase Energy Assaults damage...which makes it more appealing especially since it has that nasty label of "that mob scattering set" (not as bad on doms as it is blasters/corruptors). So, why shouldn't this change be applied to blasters and corruptors? It only seems fair. Giving energy blast a 4th blast like the dominaters got will make energy blast more popular, and with its high learning curve of controlling knockback, this will be welcomed by everyone.

Numbers are looking like this:

Blaster:

Power Push: 82 damage in PvE
Power Push: 120 damage in PvP

Corruptor:

Power Push: 55 damage in PvE
Power Push: 90 damage in PvP

*numbers taken from the middle of Power Bolt and Power Blast in their pvp and pve modes, just like how Dominater power push is between the damage of Power Bolt and Power Blast.










So? What do you think? Should Power Push be changed across the board for damage instead of ONLY for dominators? I think this idea will be appreciated by everyone and falls in line of the cottage rule.

I'm... rather dubious about that...

Energy Blast isn't actually lacking damage-wise relative to other blast sets, where Energy Assault WAS.

@Oathbound & @Oathbound Too

The problem is that Power Blast fulfills a very different role in Energy Assault than it does in Energy Blast. With two exceptions (Fire Blast and Radiation Blast) the Blast sets have a single control power that does minor damage and Power Blast fulfills that role in Energy Blast by being a guaranteed knockback rather than the chance for knockback in the other powers.

Even when they draw their powers from Blast sets Assault sets do not always use the same baseline damage, for example in Energy Assault both Power Blast and Power Burst have a higher baseline damage than in Energy Blast so that they actually do more damage than the Blaster versions despite a Dominator's lower damage scalar.

Additionally Dominator sets do not generally have a Minor damage control power in them. There are a few sets that have moderate damage controls but only two sets had the minor damage Blaster version, Energy Assault and Psionic Assault (and in psionic assault it only gets melee range to add insult to injury). This was made worse by two things. First while Knockback is a very useful form of mitigation for Blasters it's less useful for Dominators since thier primaries contain immobolize powers that reduce it to knockdown (drastically shortening the time until the enemy resumes attacking). More importantly these powers effectively replaced a melee power (which tend to be a good bit of a Dominator's DPS) with a power that effectively did zero damage. So as part of the I15 Dominator revamp these powers both had their damage increased.

You might want to look at this thread in the suggestions forum:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=199728

What you and the OP of that thread are proposing is essentially the same thing: increase the damage of a power whose primary purpose is control not damage.

To paraphrase someone in the linked thread you need to prove two things. First that Energy Blast is in need of a damage boost and secondly that increasing the damage of Power Blast is the way to go about it. The first one is debatable although personally I think it's ok. The second is unlikely simply because the control powers in Blaster primaries have minor damage to stop them being used as a 4th blast. Yes, Bitter Freeze Ray is an exception, this is justified since it isn't the set's control power (that's Freeze Ray) instead Bitter Freeze Ray is replacing the set's Sniper power since controlling things is Ice's schtick but giving it two Blaster style would presumably be bad for it's damage.

I don't see Power Push getting a damage boost, because it's actually a pretty decent power for what it does, and because Energy Blast doesn't really lack damage in any big way.

However, I DO wish to see the Dominator snipe damage buff ported over to Blasters, because snipes on Blasters are actually not at all very useful. They have crap damage per activation, low damage per second, are interruptible and are so slow things tend to die before you snipe them. I realise that probably won't happen, but it should. Snipes really should be something we WANT to use as much as possible.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I wasn't implying that energy blast was lacking damage, but energy blast seems unpopular because of "scattering" to most people I talk to, thought a 4th single target blast would make it popular?

Oh well, thought I'd give it a shot.

[QUOTE=Adeon Hawkwood;2430755]The problem is that Power Blast fulfills a very different role in Energy Assault than it does in Energy Blast. With two exceptions (Fire Blast and Radiation Blast) the Blast sets have a single control power that does minor damage and Power Blast fulfills that role in Energy Blast by being a guaranteed knockback rather than the chance for knockback in the other powers.

I also have something to say to this which was brought up in the Cobra Strike thread, about a power taking a NPC out of a fight for over 10 seconds easily should not have a damage component because it is a pure control. Well, Power Push takes an NPC out of a fight for about 4 seconds before you have to reapply it again and again. Just sayin', doesn't exactly have the same amount of "control" but I understand Power Push was designed as a utility power.