so i herd you...wait...you don't like NRG/NRG Blasters?

Amen!

The only Energy blasters I have any issue with are the ones that feel the need to use Energy Torrent and Explosive Blast while a tank is trying to herd, or while a controller is trying to lock a spawn down.

The only time I ever have a problem with single target blasts is when I'm trying to kill something with a scrapper and it keeps getting knocked away right before I get in melee range of it. And that's just mildly annoying rather than rage inducing.

Controller AoE immobilizes have a large enough radius that they will still hit most of a spawn after an Explosive Blast knocks them everywhere, but it completely destroys the point of immobilizing them (which is usually to keep them clumped together so AoEs will have maximum effect) A lot of the AoE immobilizes also have -KB in them, so Energy Torrent and Explosive Blast can be used after they are applied and not knock stuff everywhere.

Energy Blast is a great set for soloing, but a badly played one can make things significantly more difficult for a team.

And for the record, Explosive Blast applies it's KB from the point of impact, not necessarily away from you. If you aim it at a mob in the center of the spawn it will indeed KB them in a radius. Simple physics, if you apply KB to something from the opposite side of it, it will come toward you. If it knocked things in only one direction, Fireball would have to work the same way and only damage things in one direction. If you aim your Explosive Blast at an enemy at the front of the spawn, then it probably will knock stuff all away from you. If you aim at one in the back of the spawn it will probably send most of it toward you. It's just the difference between cones and targeted AoEs.

Since Energy Torrent is a cone, it will consistently knock things away from you, because it treats you as the emanation point of the KB.

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately.

I wasn't going to return to this thread, but this part of the post deserves special mention so that players who are new to the sets do not get a very, very, very wrong idea.

This is 100% incorrect and has been proven multiple times. AoE KB ALWAYS moves away from the caster at the moment the KB effect is applied. It has absolutely nothing to do with the target(s) unless the targets are spread out far enough that they are out of the radius of effect.

This can lead to some very interesting effects if you kite foes with AoE KB.

My Energy/Energy/Force Blapper uses KB for mitigation and only runs about 7% defense to all positions. I have done all of the following:

Jumped toward a spawn and launched Explosive/Torrent at the front mob, landed at the back of the spawn and had the entire spawn, get KB'd to the spot I had originally been standing.

Leaped out of the center of a spawn just as I triggered nova. All of the mobs were KB'd in a cone away from the position I landed in when Nova went off.

So, what you're saying is that KB in CoH completely ignores any and all laws of physics.

If you aim your AoE KB power, Explosive Blast in this case, at the BACK of a spawn, then the enemies between you and the target will be knocked AWAY from you, even though the KB effect is coming from the opposite side of them?



If so.....well, that's just frigging stupid. Anyone with ANY knowledge of how physics works would come to the same conclusion I did.

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately.

If it helps you get to sleep at night, imagine that you shoot a small pellet of Kirby Dots which rapidly expands and contracts as it approaches and passes a certain point to describe a sphere-shaped region through which a wave moving away from you passes.

Alternately, just chill because you're playing a game in which you're a flying guy shooting blue Dippin' Dot lasers at Nazis and physics is a "eh, close enough" approximation.

Yep, you got it in one. This is one of the reasons that many people don't like KB, because they don't "really" know how it works in game.

Many people see a Trip Mine go off, a Time Bomb go off, a surrounded energy blaster cast Explosive (which is actually an excellent idea in that case), or an Energy Blaster in the middle of a spawn nuking, see radial KB and assume that all KB is radial.

It isn't though. All KB moves away from the caster at the moment the KB effect is applied. In the case of a stationary psuedo pet like Trip Mine or Time Bomb it is radial because the source can't move and it happens when the mob/timer triggers it.

In the case of a player it is an entirely different story since the player can (and does) move, the AoE attack that has KB as a secondary effect has range greater than "0", and Swift, Hurdle, and Combat Jumping can be well slotted for unsuppressed movement.

If you want to prove it to yourself, copy a high level blaster over to test, respec in to Munitions, choose LRM (it is the largest radius, direct fire, KB attack and it has snipe range so seeing the effects is easy) Slot it with 2 acc, and 3 KB SOs, find a spawn. Target the farthest mob and fire. 50% of the spawn will move away from you (because it has a 50% chance to KB) and all of them will have been in front of the one you aimed at.

Knowing how it works makes me like it even LESS. Because it makes no logical sense whatsoever.

Anyone who is not aware of how dumb KB works in this game will fire Explosive Blast at an enemy expecting the ones on the side closest to them to get knocked toward them, because the KB is a radius effect. When they still travel away from you, it is defying laws of motion.

Comic books may ignore some laws of physics, but they still pay attention to basic laws of motion, because a number of characters' powers wouldn't work if they started making up their own rules.

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately.