Blaster Changes? (I Fear)
And as counterbalance to Sam's post, I've always found blasters to be an enjoyable challenge well worth playing.
I don't large-team, though, so the "force multipliers" that give the other ranged sets an edge over blasters don't really come into play. I also don't play to level 50 very often, as I find the late-game mechanics rather dull for any archetype.
For me, the changes to blaster secondaries will help with pacing, the changes in range will make managing the attack chain easier (though I'm often a blapper) and the snipe bonus might surprise me as the assassin's strike changes did. I'll wait and see.
About the only "blaster" issue that still frustrates me is the mezz issue, but I see that as a general-game-mechanic issue. Simply adding "more protection" would have been as it just extends the sets that have "all or nothing" protection while marginalizing the ones with "none at all." Addressing this would be a "total mezz redesign"-- not just a blaster thing.
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And as counterbalance to Sam's post, I've always found blasters to be an enjoyable challenge well worth playing.
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*shrug*
Just going to keep enjoying mine more, I suppose.
Interesting but I'm not sure how much difference these will really make. The snipe change still won't be a big help with mid-combat use unless folks are walking around with signifacant To-Hit buffs. Buffing the range on short attacks is nice, but hardly a game changer. So it really comes down to the strength of the defensive buffs and where they fall.
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Even without perma, though, fitting it in-battle with a buildup or inspire chomp won't be too tough either.
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Well, running these numbers, my wife's fire/fire blaster can have permafastsnipe while duo'ing with my main (ill/kin controller), so it doesn't take TOO much. Granted, she's already damage incarnate after a good fulcrum shift, so I never really felt she needed a buff....
Even without perma, though, fitting it in-battle with a buildup or inspire chomp won't be too tough either. |
The devs better keep an eye out for any AR/Devs hanging around clock towers. To-hit being schedule B and targeting drone only giving a base 13.875% would need a lot of slots (5ish by back of the napkin math) devoted to to-hit.
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Personally I find myself somewhat underwhelmed by the blaster specific changes nice though they are. The best changes here are simply the blast changes themselves and that applies to everyone who gets those powers. Of course that's just my gut reaction and experience might end up proving me wrong.
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I'd rather they up the to-hit in targeting drone so it only needs 2-3 to-hits than needing an IO that not everyone will have access to. Ar/Dev is in edge case since it has a snipe but no aim or build up but that's what they should be paying attention to.
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If you're talking using strictly SO's I am fairly confident the devs intent isn't for you to have perma instant snipes out of the box and they intend you to build for that specifically IF you want it.
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
I fear at this point there's nothing that can get me to play Blasters again.
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And as counterbalance to Sam's post, I've always found blasters to be an enjoyable challenge well worth playing.
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Seconding this. And I almost never pass on a snipe, as well. Sam's post is pretty much 100% anti-my-play-style.
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The original concept of Blasters led to many troubles, depending on the powersets. The "ranged damage" aspect was never enough; the Devs set it up to where my squishable squishy had to run in close to use some powers, and until you have some finesse, it usually does not end well. At this juncture, I can skitter in and out of melee intact, but the learning curve was long and brutal. The exact powersets also make a vast difference in this regard.
The snipes really could use some love. Too long to fire and plagued with constant interruptions, not to mention moving targets that duck behind cover, they are extremely situational for me.
But stop Blasting? No way. Either I love a challenge or am a glutton for punishment, but I enjoy the heck out of those Blasters.
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Only thing I never liked about blasters was vulnerability to being CC'd.
Soldiers of Arachnos with their slight built-in thresholds in their spider armors were just wonderful for that. I loved playing me a blasty-offenderish Huntsman build where I had my gun and didn't have to worry about being mezzed so much.
Just out of curiosity, why wouldn't everyone (assuming access to IO's at all) be able to use the kismet? It's not especially expensive nor difficult to acquire. And anyone can take a defensive pool power to slot it into.
If you're talking using strictly SO's I am fairly confident the devs intent isn't for you to have perma instant snipes out of the box and they intend you to build for that specifically IF you want it. |
Permasnipe would the perk of the build up-less Devices and would make it a just a bit more team friendly.
And I did the math in the wrong direction, needing only 58.5% instead of 63% is a lot more reasonable.
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Build Up itself is situational in that it can't be up all the time. Is Build Up worth taking and slotting?
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However, that said, Build Up is also pretty effective at what it does out of the box, especially because with just a bit of set bonuses for Recharge (which are already going to be a fair draw for Blasters), it really can pretty much sit with its single slot and do its job.
A snipe, on the other hand, is going to need much more love in the slots department, and Blasters (and Dominators) tend to really need their slots in my experience. So I'm just not sure it's worth that for one attack, even if that one attack does really good DPA every 40 seconds or so.
As I said before, it's not like this change will "cost" anything to my Blasters who already took their Snipes. It's a welcome benefit that will be used every once in a while. But at the same time, it's not going to inspire me, for the most part, to take Snipes on characters who didn't already have them. Even the one exception I can think of, my BR/Devices, will be replacing an attack with the Snipe, rather than adding it to the aresnal, so to speak.
Honestly? I find it pretty marginal. It's a nice opener, but not generally something I'm inclined to fire off mid-combat. And that's exactly what Snipes already are. Though that is, admittedly, playstyle and not numbers talking, and I'll admit that, so please, nobody, mistake me for being objective here.
However, that said, Build Up is also pretty effective at what it does out of the box, especially because with just a bit of set bonuses for Recharge (which are already going to be a fair draw for Blasters), it really can pretty much sit with its single slot and do its job. A snipe, on the other hand, is going to need much more love in the slots department, and Blasters (and Dominators) tend to really need their slots in my experience. So I'm just not sure it's worth that for one attack, even if that one attack does really good DPA every 40 seconds or so. As I said before, it's not like this change will "cost" anything to my Blasters who already took their Snipes. It's a welcome benefit that will be used every once in a while. But at the same time, it's not going to inspire me, for the most part, to take Snipes on characters who didn't already have them. Even the one exception I can think of, my BR/Devices, will be replacing an attack with the Snipe, rather than adding it to the aresnal, so to speak. |
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Well, I do love me some Blasters, so I also part company with Sam there, but Blasters can certainly use some help, especially in the snipe area, so I know where he is coming from.
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And it worked when I was still having to have my Brutes wait between every two fights and my Scrappers take so many endurance reduction slots. Then inherent Fitness came around, and all of my Scrappers and Brutes and especially my Masterminds became ten times better. All of a sudden my Brute could do what my Blaster could - wipe out huge spawns quickly - and all it took was a spawn or two to get moving since I didn't really need to stop and rest. And then the Fury changes happened which made gaining and maintaining Fury up to 75 was very easy. All of a sudden my Masterminds could resummon mid-battle and NOT run out of endurance. Then their upgrades became AoE. Then they became much cheaper and their buffs became AoE, too. Then Stalkers gained amazing damage AND more survivability AND Demoralisation on every Assassin's Strike even if the target died.
And all this time, my Blasters were playing the same way they played back in 2005 - very slowly, very carefully, dreading any and every encounter. See, my Brutes really didn't care too much what they fought. Mentalist, Gunslinger, Mushroom or basic soldier. Sure, they all had different quirks to them, but at no point did I have to stop and say to myself "I really don't want to do this..." Because that's what was going through my head while playing a Blaster all the time. Oh, no! What's around that corner? Oh, no! A boss! Oh, no, an ambush! Help! With a Brute or a Scrapper or a Mastermind, the most I'd think was "Boss, huh? Bring it on!"
I get why people like Blasters as a "challenge," but what they did to me is make me feel weak, insignificant and afraid. I had to work twice as hard to be only half as good... Or I could go play a Scrapper and be awesome and welcome more enemies. With my Blasters, especially in the 40s, every fight felt like a boss fight, and it was so, so draining. I ran through the Mender Ramiel arc with my Fire/Fire/Pyre, and despite making good time, I simply never enjoyed the experience. In fact, it was so unpleasant that's more or less what made me scrap all my Blasters, no pun intended. And having seen Praetoria, and seeing what the late game was becoming and how the game damn well EXPECTED me to play well on the top end of the difficulty scale... Yeah, playing characters that were struggling to impress me even at base difficulty just wasn't gonna' happen.
And it still won't. It'll take more than a token downtime mitigation tool and a non-crappy Snipe to get me to return to that AT. As a point of fact, it'll probably take a whole new AT that's either Range/Defence or Assault/Defence.
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Originally Posted by Back Alley Brawler
Did you just use "casual gamer" and "purpled-out warshade" in the same sentence?
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Don't get me wrong, I REALLY tried to like Blaster. I got an AR/Dev/Muntitions to 50, I got an Energy/Energy/Foce to 50, I got a Fire/Fire/Flame to 50, I got a Pistols/Electric/Electric to 42, an Ice3 to 42, and my experience just kept getting worse and worse with all of them. By far the easiest of those to play, counter-intuitively, was my Fire/Fire/Flame since I could easily take out those pesky Gunslingers and Mentalists and so forth before they became a problem. Char one Malta Spec Ops, Blaze + Fire Sword the Gunslinger, lay into the Spec Ops before he wakes up.
And it worked when I was still having to have my Brutes wait between every two fights and my Scrappers take so many endurance reduction slots. Then inherent Fitness came around, and all of my Scrappers and Brutes and especially my Masterminds became ten times better. All of a sudden my Brute could do what my Blaster could - wipe out huge spawns quickly - and all it took was a spawn or two to get moving since I didn't really need to stop and rest. And then the Fury changes happened which made gaining and maintaining Fury up to 75 was very easy. All of a sudden my Masterminds could resummon mid-battle and NOT run out of endurance. Then their upgrades became AoE. Then they became much cheaper and their buffs became AoE, too. Then Stalkers gained amazing damage AND more survivability AND Demoralisation on every Assassin's Strike even if the target died. And all this time, my Blasters were playing the same way they played back in 2005 - very slowly, very carefully, dreading any and every encounter. See, my Brutes really didn't care too much what they fought. Mentalist, Gunslinger, Mushroom or basic soldier. Sure, they all had different quirks to them, but at no point did I have to stop and say to myself "I really don't want to do this..." Because that's what was going through my head while playing a Blaster all the time. Oh, no! What's around that corner? Oh, no! A boss! Oh, no, an ambush! Help! With a Brute or a Scrapper or a Mastermind, the most I'd think was "Boss, huh? Bring it on!" I get why people like Blasters as a "challenge," but what they did to me is make me feel weak, insignificant and afraid. I had to work twice as hard to be only half as good... Or I could go play a Scrapper and be awesome and welcome more enemies. With my Blasters, especially in the 40s, every fight felt like a boss fight, and it was so, so draining. I ran through the Mender Ramiel arc with my Fire/Fire/Pyre, and despite making good time, I simply never enjoyed the experience. In fact, it was so unpleasant that's more or less what made me scrap all my Blasters, no pun intended. And having seen Praetoria, and seeing what the late game was becoming and how the game damn well EXPECTED me to play well on the top end of the difficulty scale... Yeah, playing characters that were struggling to impress me even at base difficulty just wasn't gonna' happen. And it still won't. It'll take more than a token downtime mitigation tool and a non-crappy Snipe to get me to return to that AT. As a point of fact, it'll probably take a whole new AT that's either Range/Defence or Assault/Defence. |
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I'm not sure if you've tried it yet, Sam, as irecall posts saying you didn't care to use them, and while still not as effective as going melee, I did find IOing Blasters for defense (especially Range Def + Hover) made a huge difference in survival and feeling tougher. Not as tough as any of the melee's, mostly because even at softcap, that one mez attack can get through, but it does become less of a worry, when one remains hovering above the enemies.
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But again - it's a bother for me, and a bother I didn't have to go through with any of my other characters. SR is kind of reaching that level of bother in Incarnate content so we'll see how that goes, but other than that? It just doesn't seem like it's worth the effort to reinvest in an AT that pissed me off so much when the most I can look forward to is about break-even performance. I can get that much easier from the ATs I actually like. Besides, I clearly have a different idea of how Blasters should be than most people, so it just makes sense to let the AT be what it will for others to enjoy and just stick to the ones I like.
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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I need to make sure I have enough Sting of the Manticore sets and Kismet uniques stored.
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