Blaster Nukes

4 of the 6 blaster secondaries offer ways to mitigate the end crash to a certain extent (Power Sink, Conserve Power, Consume, Drain Psyche). Keep a few blues handy to chew on and it is no longer a problem at all apart from a few seconds re-toggling. I like to use Drain Psyche before a nuke on a nice big group and if you are lucky your toggles don't drop at all

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it! And happy everything else to those who don't!

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Originally Posted by Leo_G Funny how no one ever brings up Sonic Blast's Dreadful Wail...

My sonic blaster hasn't gotten to take it yet...

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Anyway, I think the main reason the sets you point to (Archery, Dual Pistols and Assault Rifle) get non-crashing mini-nukes that recharge faster is because the sets consist primarily or wholly of a highly resisted damage type. The other sets, like psi blast, ice blast, fire blast, etc. have less resisted types of damage by comparison. Also, sets like Sonic Blast, Electric Blast and Dark Blast have particularly potent secondary effects that are also prevalent in their nukes while Archery and AR kind of don't have supreme secondary effect (more of a mix) and DP has watered down versions.

I hadn't actually thought about it like that...but that may very well be the case.

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It's like there is a price one must pay to get a mini-nuke (or depending how you see it, perks you get for taking a crashing set). I wouldn't expect any more sets with mini-nukes unless it's a weapon blasting set or the set does primarily smashing or lethal damage. Seriously, if the devs made a new set...like....toxic blast with great toxic damage mixed with fire damage. Would you expect a potent mini-non-crash-nuke on top of your -speed/-regen/holds secondary effect? Conversely, if a new toxic blast set *did* have a mini nuke, I'd expect it to do a mix of toxic and lethal damage with mainly just some -speed and immobilize thrown in...

I think a toxic blast set is probably a dim hope for the foreseeable future. Although I'm interested to see if they ever do a magma blast set...like Magma from New Mutants/X-Men. That would probably be fire/smashing or something like that.

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Originally Posted by Diggis See the two words I bolded. You have to work hard to achieve a similar effect. Sure, you get it a little more often, but I have good recharge, build up, aim, mob drops. Can't use it every mob, because we're already at the second mob before the first hit the ground, but I can get it off 2 or 3 times a short mission with ease. A longer one like the ITF ones I use it probably 5 or 6 times. What you feel is useful clearly differs from what I do.

Working hard is an odd way to describe something that I do before a fight anyway. But even on my AR/Ice, its Ice Patch(for +20%), Build-Up and let 'er rip.

For your last sentence, I'm not sure if you're saying that the smaller nukes aren't useful(that's laughable if you are), or if you're saying that big nukes are more useful (which is what I am questioning, since I haven't found that to be the case, personally.)

I didn't mention Dreadful Wail because I don't have a Sonic Blaster that high in level yet.

So Hail of Bullets, Rain of Arrows, and Full Auto are still my favorites. Nyaa~

H

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Originally Posted by Slashman For your last sentence, I'm not sure if you're saying that the smaller nukes aren't useful(that's laughable if you are), or if you're saying that big nukes are more useful (which is what I am questioning, since I haven't found that to be the case, personally.)

While it's no more laughable than you saying the full nuke's aren't I meant personally I find them very useful. I found rain of arrows difficult to use in a team cos it's so slow animating by the time it's finished the mob's mostly dead and I feel cheated.

I think that's also a tradeoff of the various nukes. Mini-nukes seem to always take a while to get the full effect and all work via DoT. The ranged AoE ones tend to take a few seconds to animate but are instantaneous damage (Thunderous Blast is the only one I think). The ones fired from complete safety tend to be escapable (Blizzard and Rain of Arrows). The ones that put you in the most danger are pure instant (I think) or buff you so you're in a little less danger.

I wonder what other types of nukes there could be with different perks and downfalls to counter-balance it. A mini-nuke without an endurance crash fired from range for instant damage but causes self-damage?

I use Thunderous Blast every time it is up. Not so much the PBAoE nukes, but the range on Thunderous Blast makes it quite powerful. Since my Electrics tend to be End light anyway, it never really takes me more than a couple of seconds to recover from the crash. Plus, if by chance I end up missing them all, there's no crash, so it's rare that I'll be stuck with a bunch of now angry foes and no End. (I think that's universal to all nukes that crash)

The whole point of the weaker nukes is that they ARE weaker. Yes, they're of more use solo, but they're of less use on a team, where you've got plenty of backup to buy you time while you recover. Every set is not the same, they all have their strengths and weaknesses.

That doesn't mean you have to take a set with a crashless nuke to solo. But making every set the same would just penalize those who would like to have the nukes with a crash when teaming.

I think what bothers me about Blaster nukes the most is that they tend to be treated as the "skip spawn" button. I mean, I'm the last guy who'd complain about "too much power," but I actually feel they are indeed too much, when a lot of encounters can be reduced to a single use of a full-scale nuke. And they pretty much have to be, especially solo, because that single use more or less HAS to end the fight, or cause quite a bit of trouble.

What people find so alluring in mini-nukes is that mini-nukes are reliable tools that serve the Blaster, whereas Nukes tend to more resemble gimmicks with fairly limited use. They're great when you use them, make no mistake... But the opportunities to do so, especially if there is to be a POINT to them, are far too few, in my opinion. If they didn't drain, or didn't drain AS MUCH, maybe I could see them, but as they are they just pay too much, even for how awesome they are.

And here's another thing - we pretty much know the next Incarnate slot will be some kind of upgradable, large-scale AoE. So what does that do to Blaster Nukes? "We don't know," obviously, but this poses the very serious risk of other ATs stepping on Blasters' toes and, moreover, of providing sets that otherwise don't have proper nukes with something of the sort. And while one CAN argue that you just "double-nuke," there's very rarely any point to that, at least from what I've seen.

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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.

Isn't Thunderous Blast already a mild version of a true Nuke at least as far as the crash goes? It is listed as having just -40 endurance on self while other nukes are -100% endurance on self. This makes it one of the better nukes in the game.

I feel that this is a change that all true nukes should have. Bottom out recovery, fine, but don't drain all endurance as well.

Personally, I like the fact that my nuke feels like there should be 2 guys turning keys simultaneously in order to arm it. I've enough "use all the time" powers to murdalize spawns I think that the sets that have the mini-nukes need them the way they are (part of standard attack chain) to be balanced with the true nuke sets. .I like that the last power in my primary is a special ball o' death, Last Tactical Solution that can pull victory from the jaws of defeat

As far as the Incarnate AoE possibly stepping on Blasters toes...I *highly* doubt it'll be an issue. Between (possibly unenhancable?) recharge time, AT damage scales, and the Blaster's own Incarnate AoE...yeah, not likely to be an issue.

Double nuking does come in handy at times. I've *had* to nuke with no blues, got killed and used Rise, (granted, not a nuke, but between the damage and stun provides a temporary semblance of one) enough of the team'll survive to regroup. Also remember Incarnate content will be against purples. They tend to be less co-operative about falling down dead after a nuke.

Meh, I don't see a downside to taking the -end off of Nukes. I mean, huge recharge anyway anyone? And, heck, if you miss you're still stood next to the mob who wants to stave your face in, so...it has its tradeoffs.

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Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I have a Blaster with Full Auto and I have a blaster wih RoA and they can barely take out a mob their level with a nuke unless I stack another attack

All of my other blasters can wipe a mob out their level with with ONE nuke..

With additional attacks I can easily wipe out a +2 mob with a Nuke on all my other blasters. The Nukes that have a crash do more damage per application. The crashless nukes while up more often do less damage.