Suggestion: Buffs for Blasters!
By
Adeon Hawkwood,
Posted on: 2012-02-24 11:00 in Suggestions and Ideas
Haven't visited this thread in some time but figured since the Blaster talk continues I'd just list some ideas for improving blasters.
* Crashing nukes lose their crash but have increased up front end cost (like say 40 end). If the nuke has a mez effect associated with it, that mez effect is increased to mag 4. This is balanced compared to non crashing nukes by crashing nukes exceedingly long recharge time.
* Snipes need to be improved. A mechanic that allows snipes to be used in a similar manner to stalker's assassin strikes (a regular attack when not in a certain state, a high dmg slow cast attack when in that certain state) would be ideal.
* Secondary Powers should be reviewed for possible improvements (not removal or replacement). Some powers could be given additional effects. Examples include: Boost Range could do something in addition to boosting range such as function as a break free, Targeting Drone could get a +dmg and/or minor mez protection vs 1 type of mez component to make up for the set's lack of Build Up, Taser and Stun could have their range increased to make using them proactively less dangerous, Chiling embrace could have a minor mez protection vs 1 type of mez component added, Aim/Build Up could be given the Inner Light treatment and have their damage bonuses last over a 30 second duration while decaying in value after 10 seconds.
* APP/PPP values for all aspects of the powers should be reviewed. Some powers have excessively long cooldowns, low durations or low base values (or all of the above) in proportion to what they do relative to other AT's. The armor toggles should have their base values improved, The holds should have their base durations increased and base recharge times reduced. EM Pulse from the Electrical Mastery pool should have a shorter recharge time and longer duration. Surge of Power and Force of Nature should have their base resistance values increased slightly. The aoe sleeps should have their recharge times reduced. The debuff powers such as surveillance and melt armor should have their base values increased. Many AT's find their APP/PPP's game changing when they open up but Blasters seem to get less overall from them compared to the other AT's. APP/PPP powers are supposed to let AT's dip into skills outside their typical repertoire but when the base values are very low they hardly qualify as worthwhile even when enhanced. Reviewing these powers could improve blaster overall performance.
The overall goal should be to allow blaster game play to remain relatively unchanged but to improve their performance relative to their survivability compared to the other AT's by improving powers that currently rate as superfluous or just unwieldy to use. In general, survivability should improve for blasters allowing them to dish out their damage for longer periods of time before being defeated and damage may increase slightly with some changes improving kill speed which also helps the blaster survive. Fundamentally Blasters should play the same after the changes as they do now but have better results from that game play.
Jem - Ill/Rad Controller Lv 50+3 Nic - Mind/Psi Dominator Lv 50+3 Lady Liberation - Invuln/SS Tanker Lv 50+1 Invicitx - Demon/Pain Mastermind Lv 50+1 Celeste - Emp/Arch Defender Lv 50+1 Nightsilver - DB/WP Scrapper Lv 34 Dusk Howl - StJ/Regen Brute Lv 32 Kyriani - Time/Energy Defender Lv 41Psifire - FF/Psi Defender Lv 50
Star Lighter - LB/LA Peacebringer Lv 30
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Originally Posted by Paladiamors
I love you, I Burnt the Toast!
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Is it a good enough reason to change them when datamining shows that fewer than 10% of the players of an AT even TAKE the powers in question? With "annoying" and "not worth it" being the likely reasons. |
Originally Posted by Darth_Khasei
See this is where there could be a misunderstanding of what I am saying or not saying so let me try to clear this up right now before it goes any further down this kind of path.
I am not here to defend this or that position per se which if you read up thread, my comments about the pulling out and letting the devs handle this signify this clearly. I don't see annoying and not worth it as driving forces that will have the "devs" say oh we agree that tier 9 powers are annoying and not worth it and therefore they need to be changed. That is what I am saying nothing more nothing less. There is no need for me to state facts beyond that point because that is the only point that "I" was making period. |
If you look at 20 different level 50 blasters that have a snipe available to them, in my experience, maybe one or two will actually have it. And it's entirely possible you could look at 20 different blasters and find ZERO who took the snipe.
The nuke is a similar situation. Archery, Assault Rifle, and Dual Pistols characters almost always have their nuke, because there is no penalty to speak of for using them. I don't see very many blasters with crashing nukes anymore. Especially not ones who are 50+ and have access to Judgement powers.
You could jump in the middle of that spawn and use Inferno, which will take several seconds to fire, will completely crash your endurance, and hits a maximum of 16 targets. And then you can do it again in 3 minutes.
-or-
You could stay right where you are and use Pyronic Judgement, which has a 1 second cast time, will NOT crash your endurance, and can hit up to 40 targets in the higher tiers. And you can do it again in 90 seconds.
It's really not much of a question which power is superior if you have both of them available to you. That's a problem.
Dammit, necropost got me.
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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. |
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It's an old post sure... but the topic is still raging on. Why make a new thread when I can simply add to the very thread * I * started?
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Originally Posted by I Burnt The Toast
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Jem - Ill/Rad Controller Lv 50+3 Nic - Mind/Psi Dominator Lv 50+3 Lady Liberation - Invuln/SS Tanker Lv 50+1 Invicitx - Demon/Pain Mastermind Lv 50+1 Celeste - Emp/Arch Defender Lv 50+1 Nightsilver - DB/WP Scrapper Lv 34 Dusk Howl - StJ/Regen Brute Lv 32 Kyriani - Time/Energy Defender Lv 41Psifire - FF/Psi Defender Lv 50
Star Lighter - LB/LA Peacebringer Lv 30
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I dunno, but the mods hate it!
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Originally Posted by Kyriani
It's an old post sure... but the topic is still raging on. Why make a new thread when I can simply add to the very thread * I * started?
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Issue 16 made me feel like this.
Warning: This poster likes to play Devil's Advocate.
Greetings everyone,
We would like to kindly remind you all to not ressurect dead threads, however we encourage you to start new threads for such topics.
If nessasary, please link to the previous thread.
Thanks for your understanding on this matter.
-=Mod9=-
edit: wow that red hurts my eyes, sorry, but too lazy to edit!
Yeah I kinda threw the duration/stacks idea for Defiance in at the last second, so had the least amount of thought (and nil maths) gone into it. I feel like Blasters should be rewarded for doing their job, AKA attacking with the force of a thousand angry suns.
A lot of the ideas I listed there was for a) To make Blasters the most damaging AT in most situations and b) To let Blasters be rewarded for pressing the attack and for their offensive to be the best course of action as opposed to running/kiting/holding back that AoE in fear of gaining too much aggro that they can't deal with quickly.
The ability to gain mez protection from Defiance was to stop the chain-mezzing Bosses from killing you because the T1/2 attacks aren't enough to take them down. By pressing the attack on them, you could gain enough protection to get free and gain further protection for the rest of the fight so you can either run, pop insp or have those spare few moments to pop Aim/Build Up and proceed to splatter your foe across half the map.
The decrease in nuke activation time was so that they can be used as a more reactive ability rather than proactive, many a time I've noticed that I've over-aggroed or there's one more Boss in that group than I'd expected or the Tank/Brute/Scrapper had gone elsewhere and I've gone to nuke, kinda like a hard reset of the fight at the expense of my combat ability, only to die before the animation ends (Whether or not I've tried to use Aim/Build Up beforehand)
Untyped damage was mostly there for the Blaster to be a key damage dealer even against AVs/GMs or general enemies who have a god-mode. 25% may be gratuitous, but even if it's 10% that's still a boon of damage against an Unstoppable Paragon Protector, lolHamidon or rampaging catgirl.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't want straight up increased survivability despite wanting mez protection and an increased health base/cap. I want a Blaster to be the best of what they can be, a damage dealer. I want the Blaster to be continuously rewarded for being aggressive by letting their damage be enough to overcome an obstacle. I'm not asking for a Blaster to one-shot AVs, just for them to have a real reason to choose fight rather than flight if things go bad. CCers can mass lockdown every 120 or so seconds, Melee ATs have panic buttons and God-modes available on top of reliable survivability, other ranged damage ATs have persistant debuffs/self buffs/self heals/mass super debuffs and controls.. The average Blaster can take out small groups of enemies every 3 or so minutes at the expense of all their combat ability for the next 20 seconds, short of using inspirations or excessive/precise IO work and powerset/epic choices (which I feel shouldn't be considered as a whole for balance).
'His best defense is a great offense!'
I am the Blaster, I have filled the role of Tank, Controller and Defender
Sometimes all at once.
Union EU player! Pip pip, tally ho, top hats and tea etc etc