Judgement and blasters

If you haven't read up yet, check out this long, but excellent description of the first 5 Incarnate slots by dispari. Then look at Judgement. As an example, we have:

Pyronic:

Base stats:
428.36 damage
80 foot range
Targeted AoE
25 foot radius
16 targets max
AoE, fire
1.00 activation time
20.00 endurance

That's base damage. T4 w/T4 Musculature will do over 700 pts of damage. W/no crash. From range. W/a 24 target cap.

It's also not scaled for ATs. Which means if defenders do the same damage, but can debuff the crap out of their foes first, they win. Scrappers & tanks w/far superior defenses doing the same AoE damage: win. Controllers are already win machines, and they just get more win (at least no containment, but does that mean no defiance for blasters?).

Granted, it has an unenhanceable 90s recharge. On a team of 8, all w/Judgement, who notices? For long term AoE DPS, will blasters still be king? I *think* so, but the gap will be shrinking, mightily.

Similar arguments may be made for other ATs as we get massive buffs, debuffs, pets, and likely crowd control in the future as well. I still think the AoE damage gap is closed the most w/the addition of the Judgement slot.

And yes, this is 45+ content only, so 1-44, blasters will still rule the damage game, but as we have more and more end-game focused content, I can see less need (insofar as any AT is "needed") for a blaster going forward.

Thoughts? Cries of Dooooooom? Or are we just happy to get more fireballs?

Heh.

Blasters can constantly bring the pain, and when boosted are still your go-to team damage dealer. Oh yes, and they can follow up a nuke on one spawn with a judgement on the next. Your doom is in another castle.

I think the true nukes ought to lose both the -end and the -recovery. I also think the recharge on them should be lowered. But I've thought that for a long time, a long time.

It could be interesting to lower the recharge to 300 seconds for defenders and corruptors but 240 seconds for blasters.

Enemies go BOOM!

That is all.

Good reason to revisit the why a blaster thread again.

I don't know.
I hope you are right, Dechs.
Looking at things at a glance it seems like a 90 second crashless nuke for all is more extreme than the other powers coming along...
However, I could be totally wrong. Maybe the other powers match up to providing every AT with a Tier 9 level power from another AT?

And yeah... my first thought was Two Nukes for me!!
Then I thought about a team of 8, all with said nukes...
And, I hate to say it, but I find myself thinking along the same lines as Another_Fan.

For normal content/foes, at least.
Maybe with the other Incarnate Powers factored in, it will balance things out.


EDIT: For the record, I haven't been mulling this over and feeling bummed by it or anything.
Although... now that I've been thinking about it... the future game could be rather odd (and not necessarily the kind of odd I enjoy, haha!).

By the same token...
If a team of 8 all with these Judgment AOEs is really all that (And I'm thinking it will be)... it's not really just Blasters that it "trivializes".
What's the point of any debuffs, controls, resistances/defenses when you have that fire power?


Anyway... I'm not going to let my brain wonder into doomville.
Even if things get that ridiculously skewed... hopefully I'll still have a bunch of fun! I'll let others worry about it!

If you're going to be multiplying these Judgment Nukes by eight, then be sure to do the same for the other powers. Those interface debuffs will reach full stacks right away. Eight people alternating Destiny powers will negate the need for buffs. Why take anything but blasters if you can softcap and have heavy resistance buffs, and be able to stack -res and -regen on the AVs full time?

Incarnate powers are going to trivialize content, not team roles or ATs. Anyone running a full set Very Rare abilities is going to be a god in our normal content. That's why the raids are going to get much harder. We're going to get trials that require these abilities. You're going to need the blasters on your team buffing your tank with Destiny so he can survive. You're going to need the controller nuking every 90 seconds because your team won't have enough damage otherwise. The blaster is still going to be doing more damage than anyone else on the team, he's still going to be as needed as he is now.

(Said to a fake team)

That's nice, while you guys nuke all the little stuff to heck and back I'll be over here with my ice blaster, my build slotted for recharge proc'ing -res, my defiance bonus, and a nonstop ST attack chain wrecking the AV.

Not as flashy mind you as more fireballs, but it's what I built for, have no shame in doing things that way, and I'm not really afraid of other team members having a nuke at all. Of course that's my playstyle and the fact I build blasters to be ST monsters over aoe ones. So maybe it's my bias impacting an opinion *shrug* After all I've been watching a good steamroller team walk over current content before judgment and usually only leaving me a couple seconds to pound on anything smaller then an EB. So in my opinion judgment powers are just delightful overkill whoever uses them.

That and even if you stacked 24 of them on a new incarnate AV you honestly think it'd take them down? Or dent the HP bar for that matter? Might be really useful though for clearing out the mobs in the BAF if the ambushes are allowed to get out of control, that or those stupid commandos, hey look tanks you have a moment of useful!

So yep, doom is firmly in another castle, as for the why a blaster thread, please please let that die. =p

not to mention the fact that while we're busy gaining these incarnate abilities, the enemies are also going from 54 upwards, who's to say whats to come? after these trials it could be upwards to 55+ and villains who need that kind of debuffing and damage from a team to be defeatable!