Attention Blasters!

This I didn't think of, but is very very important. Some real effort is going to have to be put forth in the long help text of the snipes to explain how this works, including the difference between accuracy and to-hit.

Well...it would make things interesting for ST focused Doms but I think that most Doms focus primarily on AOE so it would not be to much of a balance issue if Doms had full access to a perma Fast Snipe.

Defenders seem to have it the easiest to be honest. I was able to score 24% To Hit with only two To Hit SO's and Kismet.

I still think that it should be lowered regardless...in fact Blasters should get the Snipe Buff practically free and the other ATs should have it lowered to 12-15% To Hit.

I need to make a build in mids though so I can map out how many powers a Blaster should drop or pick up...I wish I24 BETA would hurry up and get here...If the Secondary Regen Power is good enough it might make the Mezz issue not that bad.

Obviously I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I assumed that this was the same tech that dual pistols, titan weapons, and assassin's strike use. The first two are based on if you have a certain power on you, the third is based on if you have the 'hidden' status, and this will be based on your attribute levels.

It probably will have a somewhat larger impact on teams than solo in many cases, but I don't think the sniper changes were explicitly targeted at Blasters. They were intended to help snipes themselves. That the changes help blasters was an intended side effect. Its the secondary powerset changes that were explicitly targeted at blasters and only blasters.

While they were thinking about blasters carefully within the context of the change, I don't think this is a case where the devs had lots of options and picked snipes to help blasters. I think this was a case where snipes themselves came up to the plate and the devs tried to integrate the change to sniper blasts with the blaster archetype.

I can't say how everyone uses BU and Aim, but I can say I don't personally stack them, nor do I recommend such. Its just not a good idea in general, even factoring in the alpha boost. I've gone both ways on this, and in my experience alternating them generates a much better net return, not just in offense, but in total performance.

Sniper shots have 12 second recharge base. I'm not precisely sure how the insta-fire code affects recharge, but I'm assuming that insta-fire snipes begin recharging as soon as activation is complete like any other attack which means sniper attacks will have a base cycle time of around 13 seconds. If you can get that cycle time comfortably under ten seconds, you can get two sniper shots off in a single BU or Aim window. And that's not hard: 50% slotted recharge would do it with no other global recharge.

If you can get two shots off, that means one use of BU or Aim will actually cover about 18 seconds of sniper attacks, assuming a safe 9 second cycle time. And that means BU and Aim can cover 36 seconds of sniper attacks. With nothing but SOs that's not bad: about 36 out of 45 seconds of BU and Aim cycle time would be covered, which is about 80% of the time.

If we throw in Hasten, things get a bit more lengthy to pace out. While Hasten is up everything will have +70% recharge. In a Hasten build, you'd need less recharge in Snipe: lets assume one SO's worth here, or about 33%. In that case, snipe attacks will have their recharge reduced to about 6 seconds, and will cycel in about 7-8 seconds. That means one BU or Aim window can only cover about 16 seconds of sniper attacks, or 32 seconds total. But BU and Aim's cycle time will be reduced to about 35 seconds. You'd have very close to 100% coverage while Hasten was up.

During Hasten's downtime, you'll have oscillating up and down effects but they will average out to what happens with one unhastened cycle. And with a lower 33% recharge in snipe, snipe's cycle time increases to about 10 seconds. Now, BU and Aim can only cover one snipe attack each, and only 20 seconds out of 45 or about 44%.

But that's during Hasten's downtime, which will be about 68 seconds out of 188 seconds. That means averaged out you'll be covering over 80% of all sniper attack opportunities. And that is with just SO slotting.


People still get confused by the soft cap, but that's life. I wouldn't want to revert to the days when it didn't exist in its current form because its harder to explain than "tohit-defense" is.

Well let's see:

According to Redtomax,

-Dual Pistol attacks have all their effects rolled into each attack but have the chance of some of the effects set to 0%. Each Ammo toggle basically comes with buffs to every individual power that goes and modifies some of those % chances, some increasing to up to 100% while others are decreased.

-Titan Weapons has kmodes (kFastMode) which some attacks grant. This fast mode has a temporary duration that cannot be refreshed. Build Momentum grants, I'm guessing, grants a unique fast mode that lasts for 10 seconds instead of 5.

-Assassin's Strike works off of a kmode as well (kmeter), which is granted by Hide. Hide constantly modifies that meter (I guess the ATO also does this), changing the kmeter from 0 to 1. When that meter is 0, AS does extra damage and causes a demoralize temp power and when not, it does regular damage. Also, depending on the kmeter, it is redirected to a completely different power with a different animation and is modified by temp buff powers (Assassin's Focus). So hidden AS doesn't even look for assassin's focus stacks while the other one does.

AFAIK, none of these are like this new mechanic. They all work off of powers that grant temp powers that have some sort of kmode linked to them. (Dual Pistols has the ammo toggles, TW has each of its attacks grant this mode and Stalkers have each attack granting Assassin's Focus or Hide modifying their mode). Having a certain level of buff can grant a mode change now? Or perhaps powers can simply be redirected when they have a certain hit chance? No no, that can't be right. You can have 22% ToHit buff and still have less than 95% chance to hit, right?

I said this way back, I said it when the devs said they would look at snipes. It should be something special for blasters. The whole purpose of the AT is to do damage. As things stand blasters don't even gain the greatest percentage benefit out of this change.

They're distinctly different, yes, but the concept is similar (different version of power is referenced under X circumstance), and I think it likely that this mechanic was robust enough when it was first made that this functionality was already there or was extremely easy to add. Once again though, I have no idea what I'm talking about and wouldn't be surprised if I was wrong.

Well, in that case, Dual Pistols isn't like the others. None of its mechanics point to redirecting to another power.

But if that were the case and the power-redirect function is that robust, what other possibilities could fall under it? Do you think checking a foe's status is possible? That is, if a foe is taunted, redirect to [insert alternate]? What about proximity? If a target is not within X ft, redirect to [insert effect]?

The applications could be pretty wide...they were talking about a pull-back mechanic. Perhaps brainstorm a way to use redirect for that too.

You got me there

I would guess no. My understanding of the powers system shows that it has never been good at reacting to the circumstances of the target. Power does something (which can now be changed based on the user's circumstance) and then the target reacts to that something.

In the general case, effect that affect an entire power like the power redirects can only "see" the caster, because in effect until the power is activated the power is unaware of its target. But once the power is activated, its too late to change anything about the power except its effects. Effects can key off the state of the target (i.e. if target sleeping then hit for X damage). But power execution (cast time, animation sequence, endurance cost, interrupt window, range, etc) can at best be altered by the state of the caster.

And some things are literally unalterable, like cast time, which is why the power-redirect mechanic had to be invented in the first place. Power-redirect happens "early" upon power invocation, before any data from the power definition is referenced for anything. So it can change anything, by changing what power is actually activated. That's a kludge, but it works.

Well I'm not technically asking you *if* it were possible. I'm more attempting to invoke thought on the subject of other possibilities of what the function can accomplish and how it can be applied to new changes. But inquiring about the limits of the function is more to gauge how far outside of the box you can start thinking.

These new changes to snipes seemed completely out of left field and has me thinking what else could be out there in scope of powersets, new ATs and AT upgrades.

Blaster Mez Avoidance = NPC logic changes to halt chain mezzing, Defiance, and Break Free

I'm pretty sure that's all we're gonna get. From listening to the talk today, I get the impression the devs have a certain hectic playstyle in mind for blasters. I don't see melee mez resists as being part of that plan.

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This is one of my big concerns about this.
Before having Alpha: Musculature, I pretty much always used Aim and Build Up together -Hit them as hard as possible to eliminate the threats as quickly as possible.
After Alpha, I have relaxed on that and tend to alternate (I'll still use both at once on occasion, as well).

Still... When I alternate them, it usually is in the form of hitting one at the beginning of a fight... and then hitting the other at the beginning of the next fight.
So, this obviously will not work with the new snipe design.
Whether or not this would improve my play/performance or hinder it, I'm not entirely sure, so I'm not jumping the gun that it is inherently bad.
I just know that it is something that's on my mind as well.

I've felt like Blasters need more damage at their disposal via some heavier hitters while in combat. This idea sort of accomplishes that... but only if you follow that one way to do it... and I'm not sure I'd be entirely thrilled by that, if that does end up to be true.

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@Zethustra

"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan

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I think it has to do with Arbiter Hawk actually. He loves to make fun powers but...I think that he's always far to cautious...or just over gimmicky at times.

Why is he afraid to make this perma? This should be for Team AND Solo play. He's trying to make it "Sometimes" Solo. It doesn't even seem worth it on most toons.

Sometimes solo? Or, just need to build for it to make it perma. Won't be easy for sure, but for a lot of the combo's looks possible in one way or another.

I don't consider Arbiter Hawk cautious at all. If I told the forums two years ago that I was going to ask Castle to give all blasters a 400% regen buff, you'd all think I was nuts. And the intent is for us to have that sort of benefit all the time. So its not like Arbiter Hawk was remotely cautious there.

I don't get the impression that making the insta-snipe non-perma is due to Arbiter Hawk being concerned about players making it perma, because at least two blaster secondaries have a path to make it perma. I think its more the case that he wanted to differentiate /Dev from the other secondaries, and this was his way of doing that in a way he thought was conceptually interesting.

As to whether its worth it or not, my back of the envelope calculations suggest that with just BU and Aim and SO slotting, with or without Hasten you can probably have about 80% of all sniper blast opportunities be insta-snipes. In other words, about as fast as snipe recharges, 80% of the time it will be in an insta-mode. 80% doesn't seem to be all that unusually situational to me, and that's for very low end builds.

I think the paper calculations won't convince most people, though, and people will just need to test drive it on beta to see how often sniper attacks are and are not in the insta mode.

I'm with you on blasters needing *something* to deal with the veritable smorgasbord of mez in this game. But, I don't really care where it comes from- a change to opponent AI that prevented them from endlessly spamming their holds/sleeps/etc would make me just as happy as some sort of inherent resistance or avoidance technique.

One reason going for the ranged defense cap works so great for blasters is a massive reduction in how much mezz you have to deal with. Cutting it down on the attacking side would be a big step toward blaster parity.

I'd love to see what the cost vs benefit winds up being. Most of my builds already have the leadership pool so I only have to lose two powers I have taken. The question is what to give up ?

Do I give up the T2 blast I can use while mezzed ? The T3 Blast, the melee attack that is giving me 3 points of ranged defense ? One of my AOEs ?

You are going to have to give up something you thought was worth slotting, because you will need the slots to put in the snipe. You have to trade off something else that had 3 or 4 slots in it so you can have those slots for tactics and kismet.

I find this aspect conceptually, and mechanically, interesting... However, I wonder if that single aspect is holding back what may be better (for most everything other than Devices).
Again, all of this is in agreement with a wait and see it in test and see what else is possibly in store mindset. So, just idle pondering, for the most part.

This would be, basically, saving the Build Ups and Aims for only before the Snipe? In other words, would this mean not using BU or Aim in front of anything else, or just simply based around using BU and Aim as soon as they are recharged?

I'm not saying that invalidates what you are saying, but I just wanted to get a clearer picture of this approach.

As I mentioned elsewhere (why did so many people create separate threads again? Don't answer that), I have been one who tended towards using BU and Aim together for a bigger burst. So, these changes will certainly shift my approach.

The Electric-Knight ______ Malfaz _____ Zox'Oculox

@Zethustra

"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan

www.pauldamonthomas.com - Original Music

Aim and build with three SOs recharges in 46 seconds They last for 10 seconds.

This give you a best case without hasten of 20 seconds every 48.5 call it 48.

In that time you have approximately 7 opportunities to fire off snipe. If you go to the trouble to have an optimized chain to fit the most snipes into a 10 second wind you get 4/7 = 62 %

That is using a generous 7 second cycle time for the snipe. 6 for recharge and 1 for cast.

Good job. That isn't even beginning to calculate the downtime you may have because you are waiting for the snipe to recharge instead of firing a power.

With hasten its 20 seconds every 36. But you are still getting at most 2 shots per window so that gives us 4/6 or 66%

Cycle time is down to 5.5 its that 3rd one that begins at 11 is the problem.


Like I said more of a problem leveling up for blasters than a solution.

That's Not even considering the 15 additional slots you need to make this scheme work or the half a snipe that is left over between cycles.

Thought:

You could just not take the snipe. Every power comes with a compromising cost. That you can say "Oh, I can take this control power or OH! I can take this AoE or OOOH!! I can take this snipe!!" is a good thing.

But if you're retrofitting powers into builds, a reexamining of all powers taken is inevitable. If you have a set with a crashless nuke, it's quite possible to skip a cone or AoE and just rely more heavily on the nuke even if you end up with less overall AoE DPS...or if you've got a crashing nuke, skip that.

My builds, thankfully, take powers completely depending on concept and now that I think about it, my Energy/Fire won't be taking the snipe because it doesn't fit his concept (and the power looks puny and weak anyway). He does have Nova and a couple of my other ranged characters picked up their crashing nuke as well as slot and use it.

Maybe you should start fitting in crashing nukes into your build as well in anticipation for new changes? Then you won't have to 'compromise' later?