Dual Pistols better then I thought.

That's why it's really so hard to be mad at any one person. I know that some people do enjoy longer, more measured posts while others hate them, so it really turns into a no-win game. If I go ahead spending hours (and that post took me an hour with the revisions), I end up getting told that tl;dr and if I don't, I invariably say something unclear and ambiguous. I don't know why this case in particular got to me.

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.

Context
Found Poetry for Samuel Tow

you know what the most fun part is?
basically taking pot shots at anyone who doesn't run
no-one can wilfully misunderstand it
it isn't even bad
they ARE outliers
Too bad, so sad.
I get pissed off at people
I'd have shot myself in the foot
but have actually stated I do NOT want
because I know that even if I don't die, I'll be seriously hurt
this is out of context
but it doesn't take a genius

Dr. K5K

**I'm with ya not agin ya.**

Deep breaths...deep cleansing breaths...

The unfortunate fate of Blasters is that they can indeed deal significantly and measurably more damage than Scrappers, but they do so in short bursts or on large-scale AoE, and even then not all Blasters are better than all Scrappers. But even caveats aside, even admitting that Blasters do more damage than Scrappers, damage is not the issue when it comes to solo ability. It's a balance between offence and defence, which is where Scrappers really shine, because they're right in the sweet spot. Blasters, on average, do more damage, but tend to have a much, MUCH harder time actually living long enough to deal that damage.

Archery and Fire Blast are considered overpowered not really because they deal more damage. They really don't, not by too much. They are considered overpowered because they deal damage MUCH more quickly and to more people. A Fire/Fire Blaster can spawn-wipe things without much issue, either through mass AoE or through strong single-target damage, and an Archery Blaster can spawn-wipe things via Rain of Arrows. Dual Pistols, but comparison (I'm NOT saying I want DP to be either of those, just providing context!), does even MORE damage than either Fire Blast or Archery, as most DP attacks hurt slightly more than comparable attacks. However, where the set really suffers is in animation times, as it just spends far too long just dicking around. Four out of six attacks have 2.5+ second animations, and that really bites in the long run.

Blaster offence is not a zero-sum game where more offence makes up for less speed. Granted, more offence or less speed may equal the same DPA, but less speed hurts power utility and safety in a way that damage really cannot make up for. Take, for instance, Executioner's Shot. This is probably the strongest T3 blast in terms of pure damage, and most of the time what it shoots, it kills. However, unlike, say, Power Burst, it keeps you rooted in place long enough to take at least one good punch to the face from practically everything you have aggroed. Its animation time may not hurt mathematical average damage output, but it hurts survivability in a not insignificant way. And for an AT that basically HAS no survivability, that's not an easy tradeoff to make.

And Executioner's Shot is not the only one. Empty Clips, Bullet Rain and Piercing Rounds are in the same boat. Look, I hover. All the time. And even then, I still get punched for using this powers a lot, because invariably I'll use one close enough to the ground for enemies to reach me, and I'll tack a LOT of licks while I fart around twirling guns in the air.

Look, something like Thunder Strike I can kind of see. It takes a while to wind up, but it deals a LOT of damage (more than Executioner's Strike, in fact) AND it provides AoE mitigation. Total Focus I can also see, because while it's slow, it hits SO DAMN HARD. But Empty Clips? Bullet Rain? That just ends up being annoying AND ends up killing me, to boot.

I don't want Dual Pistols' numbers to match up to either Fire Blast or Archery. That's not balance or parity, that's duplication. I do, however, want to see the set gain a LITTLE more, and not necessarily in terms of performance. I want to see the set gain more in terms of lessening irritation. DPA is, surprisingly, not bad, so I'm really not asking for it to hit any harder or really do anything additional. Both its effects and its stats are decent. I can't say "good," but decent. What I want is to be rooted for less time with each attack, because this is becoming the one, singular reason for practically ALL of my deaths on this Blaster.

As far as Fire Blast and Archery go, their place in this conversation is as performance benchmarks, not just for Dual Pistols, but for all Blaster combos. I've said it before that I'm unsatisfied with Blasters, but that's a bit of a misleading generalisation. I'm not so much unsatisfied with them, as I'm trapped in a loop of hope and disappointment. The AT is JUST strong enough for me to feel like I can relax and play it with the confidence of a Scrapper, and it works for a majority of the time. But at the same time, it's JUST weak enough to where one wrong move, one wrong step, one wonky enemy group, and my entire experience turns to crap and I start thinking my character is horribly gimped. Fire Blast and Archery are the sets that give me the biggest margin for error because they give me enough front-loaded damage to castrate the biggest actual threats, to where I can outlast the rest of the spawn. And at -1x3, that's no small task.

This problem I have is not restricted to Dual Pistols. It's a factor of most Blast sets, in that I feel that Blasters often trade damage - the one thing they really depend on, for some kind of implied utility that might really be useful on a Defender, but doesn't do much of anything on a Blaster. And in my eyes, that's a bum deal. Yes, Ice Blasters do manage to score by trading some damage for a LOT of utility, but you'll note that Ice Blast is still towards the top of damage-dealing sets. Where I have a problem with Dual Pistols is that they seem to have been designed as a Defender set and balanced around the "massive" utility of their secondary effects when, in actual practice, the different ammo types really don't help all that much. Certainly not enough to look to down-balance the set over. It's not nearly as bad as it was in Closed Beta, but what it was then gives us a clear window into the thinking behind the set's balance point: "The secondary effects are so good, we need to take something away from the set for them." And I just don't happen to think that's the case.

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.

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.