Devices Suggestions

How about instead of fundamentally changing the powers, they make the set interact with itself.

Trip mines and time bomb have a 1.67s cast time while stealthed by LCD Cloak (soon to be Field Operative) but remain having the 9s lay out time out of stealth. Does that sound a tad more reasonable? It'd require trip mine to have a bit shorter duration, or a pet cap number to prevent absurdly large fields (in full support of absurdly large fields btw :P) but would make laying them a lot more efficient.

EDIT: Oh and as soon as one explodes you're removed from hard stealth, to prevent spamming in combat and encourage trap laying.

Elaboration: While LCD Cloak is active it puts you into a hide mode called "Ambush" rather than Hidden. In this mode trip mine and time bomb have no interrupt time and a 1.67s act time. As soon as one or the other explodes Ambush is removed and the player unhidden. Ambush has a 5 second no combat reset time much like stalker Hide.

The issue I personally see with Trip Mine is on a blaster it is limited. Again this is definitely because I am spoiled on my Traps characters. On my Traps characters I can place them AT WILL limited by recharge only.

Whereas on my Blaster I can only place it before a fight or sometimes get lucky and place one during a fight. But the lack of defenses is what screws over a blaster in the sense that trying to place one at melee range during an active fight can definitely be disastrous and cost you your life. Further even if you survived the failure still cost you endurance. End result your going to be limited to 2 or 3 attempts before you have to give up that folly because your endurance is too low. Try to place a Trip mine on Caltrops for a test and see. Just clicking the power will drain endurance from you.

I hate to say this but that other super hero game had a nice Trip mine power that can be used here for blasters.

Or make Trip mine 2 modes. Placed or Tossed. Placed does more damage and Tossed does less but recharges faster.

Time Bomb pretty much everyone has mentioned this make it double ringed. You place it and now you get the green ring telling you its ready. You click the power again to set it off. Maybe make it linked to Trip mine in the sense if you place a Time Bomb near Trip mines they are linked together and go off when Time Bomb is triggered. Still same damage but its one BIG BOOM.

Now lets see how the forum police cry about you bringing up this thread again. I can hear the sirens now. .... I gotta jet

To be honest, as was mentioned in previous posts, asking for mechanic changes and having them happen takes effort, especially if it has no precedence.

They already have this with Assassin's Strike and Stalkers, so it oughtn't be too difficult to apply to devices.

And meh, forum police can come, the topic is still relevant, even more so now with the secondaries being updated for Blasters. The trouble I have is justifying making a X/Devices blaster when I can just make a X/Traps corrupter and have much more utility. If Blaster's Devices has a boost in the timebomb/trip mine department then it gives Blasters something more that Traps doesn't have, whereas at this current moment I'm thinking Traps has more than Devices. Gun drone and LCD Cloak Vs triage beacon, acid mortar, seeker drones, poison trap and Force Field Generator. No doubt someone will come along and say "If devices doesn't appeal to you, then don't roll a devices character." Good point, except that I'm probably not the only person who thinks Devices offers much less than corrupter and defender traps. If measured up against each other Devices lacks a substantial pull to the punch. Blaster Devices needs to have it's offensive powers that are shared in other sets to be buffed, otherwise it's just a beefier Defender with a crappy version of Traps.

I've seen this sort of thread come up every so often, and it generally comes down to gamers who need action and 'run and gun' in all their games being unable to understand a part of that game that isn't set up for their playstyle.

Devices is the 'Unconventional Tactics' Secondary of the Blaster archtype, and indeed of the entire Hero side. It is set up for those players who prefer the more indirect method of dealing with opponents, and more options in their tactics than those afforded by brute assault play. Admittedly, this doesn't work well on teams that only are interested in assault gaming, but there are those of us who think beyond that box.

There already exist many other Secondary pools designed for assault gameplay (almost all of them, as a matter of fact), and players are free to select these if their playstyle does not include the enjoyment of preparation before a battle, or hitting an opponent in a way unexpected/normally impossible. Devices may need some boosting to have it catch up to other Secondaries in effectiveness, but it doesn't need to be changed in content. Many of us rely on its unique performance for our playstyle, and would be extremely angry if it were changed to be 'more like the other Secondaries' in order to appease those who only have a limited range of strategies in their combat arsenal.

To the specific points:

Trip Mine: This is a very effective power, if you know how to use it. This is the power that can let a solo character take on an Elite or AV, because it lets them stack attacks over time until the character is ready to engage the enemy, producing a single, very powerful attack at the cost of time spent preparing....fair trade. It also allows the character to choose to prepare an area for a mob attack of smaller enemies, so it has vast flexibility. However, this is not a mobile power, and so it requires patience and a choice of where to fight. If you don't have the talent for these or the willingness to learn, then skip this power for another Pool power or Primary. Does not need any changes.

Time Bomb: This power has long been a lemon in the Device lineup. Very difficult to use and very situational, it pushes even the most strategic-minded Blasters to utilize as the timing is easy to miss due to lag or just NPC reaction. A remote detonator function has been suggested many times, and would be enough to make it worthwhile, but just making it a super trip mine with the same damage and recycle times it has now would make it useful. Again, not a mobile power, so those seeking run-and-gun gameplay should look for another power.

Gun Drone: Even when it was immobile, it was valuable as a means to close off or delay pursuit, or as a support gun when in a static position (again, not for the run-and-gun crowd...seeing a pattern yet?). Now, with the reduced summon time and flying mobility, the Drone is a useful support NPC that can attack at range, rather than needing to get into Melee Range. That it sometimes goes off on it's own instead of guarding a place you want it to be is the only disadvantage to it now. However, that is the price for the mobility run-and-gunners cried for. No changes needed.

My two cents on the matter.

Well the good news is that according to Synapse Time Bomb is high on their list of things to fix (I25 mentioned as a possibility but no guarantee) so it seems likely that a change will be a matter of not if but when.

Speaking for myself with the I24 changes I feel like Devices is in a pretty good place. Gun Drone now actually works quite well. Field Operative is my favorite of the Sustains (because it isn't a click power and allows me to use my Debuffs and my sustain independently). Caltrops is still awesome, Smoke Grenade is a decent AoE debuff and Web Grenade is better than the other Tier 1 Immobs at high level (low level the lack of damage is annoying but at high level having a strong debuff is more useful than a weak attack).

The only weak powers are Trip Mines and Time Bomb but even without them Devices is a good set. If Synapse changes Time Bomb to make it useable in a fast-paced combat environment (which is his stated goal) then I'll be ecstatic. I think changing Time Bomb and leaving Trip Mine alone makes sense. There's a fast-paced power for those that want it and a slower power for those who prefer that.

Oh and: