Is is wise to choose device as a second power?

Kid Wrath · 06-13-2011 06:03 AM

I would like to ask whether is it wise to choose the device as a second power? I choose it and i felt that device is not a very good power selection and i have not been using it because there's not much to do with device.

Level 17 Science/Blaster

Dechs Kaison · 06-13-2011 06:09 AM

All your answers are here.

Particularly:

Quote:

Originally Posted by seebs

Why is /devices weak?

The /devices set has never really been updated to fit the modern CoH game. Before ED and IOs, Targeting Drone meant that you could put one more damage enhancement, and one less accuracy, in most powers. That translated into a substantial damage increase -- figure about 10-15% compared to a blaster who had to slot for more accuracy. Now, most people will have damage at the ED cap, and with set bonuses, they may well have plenty of accuracy without even explicitly slotting for it. Targeting Drone went from a pretty decent power to a sort of mediocre power. It's still better than nothing, but it's not at all obvious that it's better than a pool power, or better than not using it and saving your endurance.

Similarly, Cloaking Device was a really nice stealth, back when there were no Stealth IOs. Now, it's not great. It's not awful, and it helps that it stacks with Stealth IOs, but it's a mediocre to pitiful amount of defense (especially since only part of that defense is available when you're in combat), and stealth is not in and of itself all that useful most of the time.

The big central flaw, though, becomes clear when you look at time bomb and trip mines. The powers that ought to be among the set's star players are utterly useless once combat starts; they are essentially impractical to use except by setting up before combat. On a fast team, the average spawn will be dead in the time it takes you to set up a time bomb, rendering the power completely pointless.

Quite simply, /devices was not built for CoH the way it is actually played.

How does /devices compare to traps/ or /traps?

The traps/ defender set is widely regarded as an amazing set. The reason is clear if you look at a few of the powers that traps/ has and /devices doesn't. Look at Triage Beacon, Acid Mortar, Force Field Generator, Poison Gas Trap, and Seeker Drones. Do you know what they have in common? They aren't interruptible. You can use them in combat. And that means that you can actually get substantial utility from them. Furthermore, with the better defense of FFG, a traps/ defender can toe bomb with a reasonable hope of success even after a fight has started; a /devices blaster has to build very, very, carefully to get enough defense to be able to use any powers in combat.

Defenders get less mileage from Trip Mines and Time Bomb than blasters; for blasters, at least the bombs do enough damage to be potentially worth the hassle. For defenders, Time Bomb does less damage. (Corruptors, however, might consider it as a situational power.) Masterminds replace Time Bomb with Detonator, but Trip Mines is pretty useful everywhere.

If you really want to use the /devices powers actively in combat, on teams, consider going with a traps/ defender, or /traps corruptor, instead.

Why would anyone play /devices, then?

Why play a set which is inefficient compared to other sets? Because this game is not fundamentally about efficiency of builds. It's about building a character that looks cool to you. It's about awesome super heroes doing amazing things and being stunning. If you have never seen a /devices blaster wiping out a spawn with mines, it's hard to appreciate just how awesome it looks; the ragdoll physics in CoH really shines on handling large numbers of enemies hitting mines with decent knockback. (Ask around if you want to see this; I bet most people who would play /devices would be happy to show it off.)

I play /devices because I love the way it plays, and don't care that it's inefficient. I sit around watching TV while I set up nests of trip mines. I wander through missions arranging to one-shot the one and only enemy on the map I need to kill, without bothering to kill everyone else. Sure, I get less loot and XP and inf. But my superspy stealth infiltrator is playing like a superspy stealth infiltrator, not like a muscle-bound idiot. So I'm happy.

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JD_Gumby · 06-13-2011 08:14 AM

Devices is fine. On teams, you're mostly using it for Caltrops, Smoke Grenade, Web Grenade (mainly for the -recharge and for helping to keep a boss on your Caltrops if there's someone with an AoE immobilize around you can stack with), the bit of defense from your Cloaking Device (though if you're a couple of seconds ahead of your team and have a Stealth IO or Super Speed as well, you might lay a trip mine in the middle of the spawn), and your targeting drone, of course.

When solo you're doing all that - plus more frequent Trip Mining (setting up minefields to lure Bosses & EBs onto and just the regular planting a mine in the middle of a spawn and jumping backwards as you let off an AoE to finish off all the Minions, mortally wound the LTs, and do a fair chunk of damage to the Bosses) and, unless you're a speed-at-all-costs type, dropping Time Bomb to start fights if it's up and pulling out your Gun Drone (and that's the only power I'd change in Devices - make it 2s to cast, a 5m duration, and a 15m recharge) while waiting for Time Bomb to go off.

Really, the only power my L50 AR/Dev Blaster doesn't use regularly solo is Taser (didn't even take it - too lazy to get into range to stack it with Beanbag to stun bosses :P). I'm not a Go! Go! Go! type, however. And t'Hell with Traps comparisons - it's not a Blaster set and therefore doesn't matter in the slightest.

Ogi · 06-15-2011 09:30 AM

If you like GO GO GO! style play (and your primary isn't enough to support that habit) devices probably isn't for you. If you like to be like Batman who can take down anything given enough preparation, devices is right down your poorly lit thug infested alley.

Smoke grenade and cloaking device gives you full invisibility (that the bulk of it(SG's -perception) doesn't suppress while clicking on glowies). Caltrops and a hallway is a thing of beauty, only outdone by caltrops, a hallway, and four minutes worth of (Hastened) trip mines. A mine field where you know an ambush will spawn counts as well.

Teams can be tricky, especially if you don't know the others or they don't know devices. Smoke grenade looks just like an attack. You know it doesn't notify mobs but they may not. You may be sneaking off to plant a few trip mines to level the next pull instantly while the rest of the team finishes up the current pull and they may follow to "help"/"save" you.

One last thing, if you hate to-hit debuffs, and I most certainly do, you will love targeting drone. It also has a better to-hit buff than defender tactics. Snag the +6 to-hit IO, give targeting drone a to-hit buff enhancement or two and for normal play one accuracy (or even partial accuracy if you're frankenslotting and have an inherent acc mod on your primary) will keep you at 95%. The to-hit buff is worth a lot less once you get into set IOs as you'll have more accuracy then you know what to do with but even then the to-hit debuff resistance will make it near impossible to drop your hit chance below 95% (through debuffs).

I think Devices is a love it or hate it set (I love it). If it meshes with your play style you'll wonder why the other secondaries even bother to exist. If it doesn't, you'll wonder why Devices even bothers to exist.