Blaster Fixes: Survivability Side

I think whatever it is, it has to become available no later than level 22, when SOs become available and the game shifts into blaster mulch-gear.

yeah- any fix that relies on hitting a high level doesn't cut it.

And I'd prefer it to bolster the full level range- it's not like lowbie blasters are exactly living the life of Reilly, it just sucks less than the rest of the game.

this at least

Is there anyway to gain traction on the counter-mez in the single target attacks idea?

Despite the hesitation against it, I still think some modest resists or defense is vital because the counter-mez plan is good and fits, but at the suggested radii I have seen, it will not be enough. Resists/defense give time to respond and alter course a bit. I also think every blaster secondary has powers that already make thematic sense to have some resists or defense added. (I guess absorb could work as well, and since these changes won't happen until I25 , that will give a fair amount of time for the devs to appraise absorb in live play).

+regen is also workable, but I do not think it will be as useful (alone) to the average player as it might be to stronger players.

Personally, I very much prefer adding abilities to current blaster powers and doing so in specific ways so each set retains different flavor. While some changes could be made AT wide, I'd rather see more variety. Obviously some things would need to be similar (i.e. if they added resists or defense, Sm/Le resists/defense would want to be included generally and range for defense), but after those then it should split thematically (Energy resist for Electric, Fire/Cold for Fire, etc).

If regen has an advantage its that its proportional effect is stronger for weaker builds, and tends to dilute within stronger builds with higher regeneration and/or healing. When something starts off strong and descales with stronger player build skills, it can be made stronger for the players that need it most while not worrying about what the stronger players can do with it. Resistance and Defense operate in opposite fashion: they get commensurately stronger with more powerful builds due to stacking. You have to be a lot more careful with resistance and defense because of the way those stack in this game.

We want players to get stronger as they learn more and put more effort into the game, but we don't want that process to be accelerating. We want it to be diminishing (but not asymptotic) or at best flat returns, or we amplify the gap between the strongest and weakest players. Games should tend to compress that gap without eliminating it, not amplify and exaggerate it.

You also don't have to worry as much about outliers like Drain Psyche. If you give +regen to primary sets, Drain Psyche will significantly dilute that benefit when its up, but then again when its up you're already doing better than any other blaster. If you give +res/+def to blasters in primaries, that will magnify the power of Drain Psyche.


In general, this is a core design principle of mine as well.

Sigh. So true and it still makes me sad they never fixed it (but it is understandable that they didn't change it too). There is one potential way to grant blasters a form of defense that avoids the stacking issue, Elusivity; abosrb avoids the stacking issue for resistance. So there is hope.

I'd likely do it in secondaries since they have powers that make sense for that and it avoids issues (although now two primary sets will have heal powers, so...).

I tried something similar to this with my Sonic/Ice/Elec Blaster.

I slotted the Entropic Chaos chance to heal in Shriek, Scream, and Chillblain and the Call of the Sandman chance to heal in Sirens Song and Frozen Aura.

The results were pretty negligible for additional survival. Though if I was mezzed with a sleep effect when Entropic Chaos procced it would break the sleep which did have some minor utility.

Well upping those base values starts affecting things as early as level 4. I am NOT saying this is all they need. I am simply saying it's an easy place to start addressing things. It also has the added benefit of not requiring any significant mechanic changes. It is simply giving higher base values.

Blaster basic power pool base values:

Hover 1.75% enhanced to ED cap 2.74%
Combat Jumping 1.75% enhanced to ED cap 2.74%
Maneuvers 2.28% enhanced to ED cap 3.56%
Tough 10.5% enhanced to ED cap 16.44%
Weave 3.5% enhanced to ED cap 5.48%

Now what if they had Corruptor Base values instead?

Hover 2.13% enhanced to ED cap 3.33%
Combat Jumping 2.13% enhanced to ED cap 3.33%
Maneuvers 2.63% enhanced to ED cap 4.11%
Tough 11.25% enhanced to ED cap 17.61%
Weave 4.25% enhanced to ED cap 6.65%

That's not a huge change but it couldn't hurt and wouldn't upset balance all that much if at all. Now if you wanted to really get extreme...

Here's what they'd get with Defender level values:

Hover 2.50% enhanced to ED cap 3.91%
Combat Jumping 2.50% enhanced to ED cap 3.91%
Maneuvers 3.50% enhanced to ED cap 5.48%
Tough 15.00% enhanced to ED cap 23.48%
Weave 5.00% enhanced to ED cap 7.83%

I think defender levels might be too much to hope for... but even at corruptor levels it's a step up without stepping on too many toes. Now consider how this might play out with APP/PPP's. While I am aware the game before lvl 35 is important... just raising pool power values and whatever mechanic changes blasters get should be enough to get them to 35 easier.

With Corruptor values using just Hover, Maneuvers, Tough and Weave by lvl 22 when you get general access to SO's you'd have 14.2% defense to EVERYTHING and almost 18% resistance to s/l damage. And while it might be a bit intense endurance wise it is manageable with 3 SO's in stamina and 1 SO devoted to endurance reduction in each toggle. More end redux makes it easier to handle. Now couple something like that with whatever other ideas the devs are cooking up and it should provide all the survivability necessary to reach 35 and get the goodies awaiting them there.

Here's some examples of values changing for APP/PPP Shields:

Current Blaster Values:
Scorpion Shield 10.5% enhanced to ED cap 16.44%
Charged Armor 19.25% enhanced to ED cap 30.14%
Temporary Invulnerability 21.00% enhanced to ED cap 32.88%

If Blasters had Corruptor values instead:
Scorpion Shield 12.75% enhanced to ED cap 19.96%
Charged Armor 20.63% enhanced to ED cap 32.29%
Temporary Invulnerability 22.50% enhanced to ED cap 35.23%

It's only a few percentages higher but it gives at least some increase to Blasters without changing any mechanics AND it lets them get more out of enhancing them as well. As I've been saying over and over again this is NOT all that is needed. It is simply an easy way to shore up survivability without any major mechanic changes needed. It should work in UNISON with whatever other changes the devs are coming up with and may allow them to avoid some extreme design ideas they may not be entirely happy with. Add in other value changes like APP single target holds having shorter recharge times and longer durations and oddballs like em pulse getting the same treatment and Blasters end up with more reliable tools to ensure their survival.

Quite frankly, those heal procs suck, although in Siren's Song it might be at least halfway decent. Synapse stated during the PPM discussions that looking at edge case procs was on his todo list at some point: I believe this is one of those edge cases.

Its not that the effects are completely unnoticeable, but rather that they are not worth the slot cost in attacks. Devastation chance for hold would probably offer more mitigation.

I have the heal proc and it's just useless- when it does trigger I think it heals for something like 60 health on my level 50 blaster....and it doesn't trigger that often.

Same blaster has the Hold proc, which is great. It's my ice & it seems to trigger fairly often, including in conjunction with the ice hold in his secondary. Very handy.

Now this I agree with.

Originally Posted by Smiling_Joe ::looks at RaikenX's signature:: Something funny.

I thought this was a different way to look at things. A lot of the danger is when the blaster has melee brought to him/her - because the mobs close. What if the stupid AI were set to have mobs want to stand back. But I would also want to add a fix to the ridiculously long range attacks that the NPCs have that have longer ranges than my blasters.

Indeed. It was an experiment and iirc when I was figuring out the actual value of having done so from Hero Stat logs it wound up being something in the neighborhood of roughly equal to 2% more regen for all 5 procs total.

I tried it using Sirens as an opener but I was usually fully healed in that case and got no benefit.

I switched to opening with Shockwave to mitigate the alpha (which no longer works as well as it once did due to the KB bug) and following up with Sirens to heal a bit of the Alpha damage. Results were similar. I'm pretty sure the Goat is right. The proc heals about 60 HP and Sirens would proc once or twice against 10 targets.

Unfortunately that extra range NPCs have was added into the game (along with a lot of ranged attacks themselves) specifically to prevent hover blasters from fighting in complete and utter safety.

If you look at every other MMO its not like this. You can kite easier and the mobs usually die before they get to melee range. I can understand the concern of hover blasting but do you know how ineffective that is in terms of xp over time. Personally I say give all blasters something similar to what energy manipulation has for the first power. Immobilizes are for the most part worthless in this game unless you are a fire controller/dominator. Its really annoying to stop them only to just have them pick you off from range.

Don't forget Assault Rifle. Mmmmm.... Ignite.

Oh I know. I've played a lot of MMOs out there over the years. There's usually at least the chance that the enemy will get to you if you mess up kiting somehow though(small though the chance may be).

Mostly I'm just saying the addition of long range attacks to everyone was a design decision and I'm not sure it's one they're willing to revisit. I'd be rather happy if they did, especially since they don't seem to like giving ranged IO sets any range bonuses so it's far less likely to come up than in the past.

Nevertheless, buffing Blaster ranges would be a direct buff to Blasters without adding anything at all to melee-centered ATs or the buffers/debuffers.

I have this opinion as well. But the blaster changes may fix this. They add a self heal or +regen which should greatly reduce this downtime.

Arcanaville posted on another thread that what causes blasters to be defeated is primarily starting fights below full health. Given that, the blaster changes allowing them to quickly get back to full health between fights may be all that is needed to eliminate the blaster defeat disparity.

My suggestion for making blasters even better would be adding additional defiance effects.

Every power you attack with (or hit with, however the dmg bonus works) gives you +.5 mezz resist for 3 seconds. 4 attacks gets you resist 2, 6 attacks gets you resist 3. This makes using your fast tier 1 and 2 powers useful for this effect, and since you can use those while mezz'd would let you fight your way out of mezz. Get hit by a mezz, use your tier 1 and 2 to get resist 2 and break out of mezz so you can use your other attacks.

pre-defense cap build my ar/dev made hay with caltrops three slotted with Slow + ignite.

It was the highlight of an otherwise unappealing build.

I completely agree. My rest suggestion was made prior to that announcement and I think the existing Blaster changes will probably work out better than just decreasing the recharge on rest (although I wouldn't mind seeing rest get reduced recharge as well).