State of KB?

I played a NRG blaster on release day (this is my second forum account, so I lost about a year of "look-at-my-signup-date" power)

Like a lot of people who stumble onto NRG, I thought the KB was great.... so great, I wanted to slot for MORE!!! until I got on a team, and realized what everyone does, that chasing mobs all over sucks and makes everyone sassy.

I have been avoiding KB for years now, and playing CoH on and off, and mostly melee, and looking for characters that KD, the sort of high-brow brother of KB.

Well, looking at the forums I continue to see people play NRG, so either people solo all the time, or have figured out ways to manage KB when on a team, or something mechanically has changed, etc.

If you play NRG (or any class with KB like standard ammo DP), how do you manage the KB in such a way that you can team and not make everyone nuts?

Thanks,

A Closeted KB/KD Lover

My first 50 and probably my favorite toon to play is an NRG/NRG blaster. I have found it preforms equally well solo, and on teams. The key to teaming with energy is realizing that you aren't a typical blaster. You don't just stand behind the tank and blast away. Use your KB to benefit the melee folks. See a stragler? Run behind him, aim at the tank/brute/meatshield and knock him back where he belongs. All the baddies in a nice little tight bunch? Hover directly overhead and knockback becomes knock down.

Energy is my favorite blast set because it requires sound mechanics to fuction well on a team. It takes a bit more planning and concentration than the other blast sets. Also, I find that melee types don't mind knock back if you follow two basic rules: 1. Don't knockback their target. 2. Make sure whatever you knockback dies fast so no one else has to chase after it.

Don't be afraid of energy, it is a lot of fun to play and can be a great addition to a team when played correctly.

Note: Make sure you carry a decent supply of blues, becasue Nova is easily the best nuke in the game and you should use it often, but you need to refill that blue bar ASAP after using it so you can get back to blasting.

In a team setting I'll use hover or the environment (the walls if possible) but I'll always try to discuss tactics with teammates.

I think a lot of the reasons for the change has been, from my experience playing, is that tactics have changed a lot and has become more a steamrolling, versus herding. Mobs tend to die so quickly on a team that very rarely does KB bother me.

"Oh my group has been blown all over the place. Oh its dead..next!"

There it is, steamrollering. In todays game a hot team barely stops moving. Sure, what everyone talked about earlier as ways to do things to deal with knockback is very good suggestions. And they pretty much do not apply on a hot team. In the end, KB stops the steamroll. Sorry, I love energy too. I love the concept, the animation, etc.

For me, I solved the problem by switching to a Rad Blaster. Only one KB cone, so I have much greater choice about whether I use KB or not. AND I am still begging for a Proc to get rid of the KB in that....

While it requires that you step abit on the Rogue Isles, you should consider going Mu. In the Vllain Patron Power Pools there's a 20 sec AoE called Electrifying Fences that adds a -1000% KB/KU/KD to all mobs it hits. It essencially breaks your main form of mitigation, but at least you can nuke the hell out of everything you see in steamrolling teams without dispersing the mobs. Plus, those 2 extra AoEs in Mu come in handy when running -1/8 missions solo, Energy's not that good with cleaning up trash mobs.

Your choice, tho, Scorpion shield and its potential for capped s/l/e defense is also appealing, but that's why we have dual builds now.

All of the tactics above, especially communication, are good. Some other things to remember though:

You have a secondary...use it. The KB from melee attacks is easier to leverage into something useful than at range.

As was mentioned up-thread, nobody cares if the stragglers get knocked around. I have a 'Target Nearest' and a 'Target Farthest' on hotkeys. If we hit a mob and I know that scattering them away would be bad, I target the last one on the OTHER SIDE and hit him. With a ST attack he goes flying and we clean him up as we go. On an explosion it actually blows the rest of the mob towards us which is generally a good thing. Blasting them against the wall with a side shot is also fun.

Pick your targets. See the Malta Sapper? I bet you could knock him a mile and not hear a peep. Bosses tend to be KB resistanst so you can likely blast away at those no problem. Rikti Comm Officers and Mentalists tend to fall into this catagory too.

The fact that you actually care enough to ask this question means you'll be popular on teams.

I had a great time on my scrap the other day, teaming with a well played energy blaster. Anything running or otherwise wayward was kb'd back into the kill zone. The 'clean-up' stage (getting those last few of a spawn) was especially fun as the remaining baddies were somehow always flying either at me or near me. As if the blaster were playing a game: Let's see how many bad guys I can fling at the melee guy. It was awesome, I'd finish my target, target next and cue attack- and then kill the bad guy as it went flying past me. Friggin sweet.

On my own energy blaster, I'm especially cognizant of AoE immobilizes that have a -kb component. Wait for the immob (who has hopefully waited for a nice tight pack), buildups, release AoE.

And other tactics as mentioned above. It's a fast paced, positioning oriented set with the potential to be very useful- or very messy, depending on the player.

The amount of time you waste positioning your self to use knockback effectively really is a waste of DPS for a blast set. This is why I have avoided energy blast like the plague for years. I love the concept, but the amount of time you spend chasing to get the angle right is just too much.

I also can't stand having to have an awful vantage point staring straight into the ground on an indoor map just to get it to have a KD effect..

Played my tank with an /AR dev and an energy blaster the other day.

Situation is still the same: You knock it away, you kill it. And I have no rez for you.