what AT's are in need of any help?

I think that one of the problems a lot of people have is not accepting or understanding that different ATs and different powersets within ATs can and do play differently and not everyone is going to enjoy the ways that certain powersets and/or ATs function successfully.

If a particular AT or powerset doesn't jive with a particular person's preferences/enjoyment, then they might think it needs help. And I don't always agree with that assessment (that balance is for the developers/designers to decide).


While I do feel like Blasters could benefit from a little bit of love, as someone who absolutely loves playing every blaster set I've tried, I fear that too many people think that "fixing" Blasters requires making them something far too different than what they already are.

The main problem I see with Blasters is that when the Devs want to have something really show its strength/difficulty, so much so that it'll hurt the heftier ATs, Blasters really suffer for it. That's an extremely tough balancing act for the developers though, so I don't complain about it possibly not being perfect.

I just cringe every time I see people say that Blasters need a lot of work and/or are too squishy... How squishy is not too squishy and how not too squishy makes playing them less fun for those of us who love them now?
That is the difficult balancing point I see in approaching Blasters from the squishy side... I'm all for giving them some more damage, even though I know the damage level can't really be on par with their lack of hitpoints/defenses/resistances/mezprotection.
I'm okay with them suffering a bit more, but I think the gap could be lessened a bit without ruining the thrilling fighter-pilot AT of the game.

When we say "needs help", what are we talking about? My answer changes accordingly...

- In terms of doing regular content at +0/x1, no AT needs help.

- In terms of running regular content at +4/x8, everything I own that's not at the soft cap needs help (which is all my toons, by the way...)

- In terms of soloing AVs and GMs, every AT combo that doesn't have -regen needs help

I personally think a good metric is how an IO'd toon at lvl50 performs at +0/x5 (the difficulty my toons all shoot for), in which case (from my own experiences, at least) I can only say that Blasters, Tanks, Stalkers, MMs, and WSs *don't* need any help. I'll add more ATs to what don't need help as I acquire (anecdotal) proof of each claim...

Blasters have all kinds of problems basically stemming from the fact that what they bring to the table (damage) is brought by everybody, and they don't do it so much better than anyone else as to be worth having nothing else to contribute.

Tankers suffer sort of the same problem, but with damage mitigation. They're not so much sturdier than Brutes that they can do anything that a Brute can't, but their damage is substantially lower.

Masterminds suffer more from poor power balance than systemic problems. Ninjas and Mercenaries are both incredibly bad, and Beast Mastery and Necromancy are a far cry from perfect. Robotics, Demons, and Thugs are all strong, competitive powersets with what other ATs are capable of. What really needs to happen is a sweeping round of buffs and fixes for the broken sets and some quality of life improvements for the mediocre ones.
Of course, the impossibly bad pet AI doesn't help matters any either - for any MM.

The only issue I see with Kheldians is that Peacebringers are still very meh when compared to Warshades, who kind of have, "Anything you can do I can do better," syndrome going on.

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

The only ATs that really need help on a whole are Blasters and Khelds. For the most part, it is particular power sets that need to be looked at.

I'm not sure that any AT needs overall 'Help' any more. (Possibly excepting Khelds, but I'm not sure they can fix my issues there, being the result of some baffling design decisions.)

I would like to see tweaks made, yes; As previously mentioned in this thread, Tankers and Brutes could use more of an individual identity. Same with Corruptors and Defenders. (Seriously, when the only reason I can come up with to take one AT over the other is 'does it fit my concept better to have better armor/get my buffs or debuffs faster, or not?' then the overlap in the ATs is perhaps a bit too much.)

Similarly, tweaks to Scrappers and Masterminds would be nice, but ultimately not needed.

As for Blasters, most of the issues I have with Blasters (i.e. the issues of Snipes and End-Consuming Nukes) aren't exclusive to them, Corruptors and Defenders have them as well. The only thing exclusive to Blasters I have is the lack of secondary sets to choose from.

Of course, every (non-epic) AT have certain problem power sets... but those are not AT problems.

VEATs.

a few easy fixes for blasters..

1) More Damage

2) Balance out the tier 3 blasts having that ridiculously short range..

3) Fix the Snipes.. Nothing was destroyed more with ED than Snipes. You used slot it one accuracy and five damage and hit Build Up and Aim and take out at least one LT.. or put a serious hurting on a boss... now you cant beat an even con LT and you just tickle a boss.. Snipes need to worth the animation time, end cost and dps drop again...

4) Remove all crashes from Nukes. I was originally against this because the concept made sense but at the end game with everyone getting Incarnates and doing sweet damage and hitting more targets and recharging faster with no end crash on Judgement powers, it makes the Blaster Nuke look very outdated... This should be addressed...

4) Fix the Build up Aim situation where its available to all blasters regardless of build choices.. This is especially the case if you pick Devices as a secondary which is very unfair IMO....

Kheldians just got a huge buff and are actually quite good now.. and Dark Armor needs no help at all..

I might as well jump in too!

Tankers do not need extra damage, just more AoE mezz attacks to give them some room to breathe now and then. Or, an inherent that lets them survive a deathblow with 1 point of health.

Blasters need their power sets reviewed, and get some more power to Sniper attacks.

Defenders are fine, though I always thought of them as the best at healing and mezzing their enemies in order to prevent dying. Too bad the Controller took that spot, sort of.

Dominators...Yeah, a big 'NO' to any buffs for Dominators. Period.

I'm not a fan of the Fury Bar for Brutes. I always thought it should be similar to that of the Dominator's bar: Filling up to max, then slowly dwindling down. It's just ridiculous rushing into battle after battle just to keep the Fury bar up.

Scrappers have the same crit as Stalkers, but with the i22 buffs, Stalkers are definitely taking over the ST damage department. Scrappers need an inherent that gives them more chances of doing critical damage when their health falls below 50%, or something like that.

As for the idea about a new AT (Not sure if it's on this topic or another), but I was thinking something like a Weapon Master. Someone carrying 7 different weapons, each having it's own special characteristics, like a Warhammer doing smashing damage, a Shaolin Spade AoE attack that knocks enemies down, a bow/arrow for ranged attacks, two poison daggers for DoT, with the weapon draw animations faster, as in pulling it out and attacking, without that delay.

Hmmm....Wonder if they'll include the Shaolin Spade for Staff Fighting...

To sum up:

Every AT needs help (I think I saw every AT mentioned by at least someone).

No AT needs help (at least one person thinks each AT is fine).

Pretty much what you would expect from a question like this on an MMO forum.

That Steven Colbert animated gif was spot on.

Blasters need a serious look. Potentially top-down. They currently don't have a role, per se, and don't perform the role they have very well.

Unless that role is, "Be squishy". They're actually pretty good at that.

Tankers need somewhat more HP, and to be able to prevent "unpreventable" damage in some way. I don't think they need more damage; I think that creates an uncomfortable tension.

But I do think Tankers need to absolutely be the Kings of durability, which is currently at least "in question". Even if they're currently in the lead, it needs to be a stronger / larger lead.

I really wish the OP had added "besides Blasters" to the agenda for this thread, just to avoid a repeat of the 50 other threads within the last weeks that this is now probably going to turn into.

Echoing another sentiment, I'd like masterminds to get improved pet ai and control. A pet class should be able to precisely and easily control their pets as far as I'm concerned. I suppose that's a buff in some ways but it's more a matter of taking away tedium and making more fun.

Similarly, if pb/ws are to shapeshift often then the animations should be shorter. Hyperbole incoming, half the time I feel like I could brew a pot of tea or watch my character die while waiting on the form shift to animate. Long story short, for me, it is incredibly flowbreaking.