i24 Blaster Changes

Oddly enough, my Elec^3 also has neither the snipe nor the clap. And while I'll likely change my build to take advantage of this, remember that I need to give up something else to get it. So it is definitely not a FREE boost.

I feel similarly, Airhammer, except for your refusal to take the snipe and Survivability power (although, I already generally take snipes).

Some times there has to be a bit of a lock in a power that you're going to want (almost need) to take (within primaries and secondaries).

I think Assassin Strike is an excellent example.
However, I'd hope, if Snipes were turned into something more inherently worthwhile, you'd not be refusingto take them.

So, maybe that is the sensible reply to the questions about your comparison of the AT upgrades for Stalker and Blaster.

Although... I am also on the same page that this is entirely a wait and see point about all of this. This isn't really an AT upgrade for Blasters, as the Stalker upgrade was.
We'll see...

Still, I have been sitting and pondering the same frustration for my Elec/Elec Blaster. I am, honestly, hopeful that Electric Blast may be getting some love of its own, not yet mentioned.


I also like (and had thought the same thing) the idea about using our Defiance stacks to activate the quickfire snipe.

Does -heal resistance improve regen as well as healing?

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Originally Posted by Arcanaville Because you believe you need a lot of defense and resistance to get any benefit from regeneration. Which is false, but its your right to believe it.

But in the current level 40+ meta-game, you can get massively more mitigation from defense than regen and even small additions of defense mean a lot due to what they are likely stacking with. The regen (and other +HP mechanisms) on top of defense builds will be excellent, but how will they play out on minimally IOd builds? It is not so much that regen is not beneficial, but I don't see how it will help the average player when the most likely cause of death is blundering into things, stripping aggro off the tanker (due to any number of mistakes by either party), or unexpected adds and in most of those cases getting killed quickly. Monitoring the war of attrition on HPs is an advanced player skill, I think.

In the 20 to 40 game, I'm just not feeling it. Running a regen stalker (or scrapper or brute even) from 20 to 40 with just Integration, QR, Fast Healing, and whatever mitigation the primary can provide would not be acceptable and therefore I don't accept it on blasters either.

I have a blaster with 350% regen. Turning off Fire Shield and Tough makes a huge difference (vs most things). The +regen and resists are very good to me in normal mission running (but nothing like what a defense build can do, much to my chagrin). I can pace myself in a mission to take advantage of the +regen, know where the trouble points on maps are, know which enemies are the most problematic, and use inspires frequently. It does allow me to keep moving from spawn to spawn at my preferred difficulty settings. But, it really doesn't matter when things go south and I am guessing I avoid things going south far more than the average player.

My Emp/Elec blaster has almost no other mitigation besides regen and Healing Aura, from experience I am pretty sure it will not be enough (but it is still a good start) on its own.

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Originally Posted by Arcanaville The changes will make every blaster I've ever created more survivable: that's obvious. Whether it will make them survivable enough is a judgment call that will require actual testing to know for certain.

Indeed, although there are some things that can be done now to sort of test it out. You could run a blaster with an Emp and have the Emp rotate RA and AB and do nothing else.

An AT that can create hate quickly ought to generally have something to deal with the occasional high incoming damage. Regen scrappers can pop off MoG and tank a spawn, but no one confuses them with tankers. If blasters could occasionally prevent even 30% of what MoG can prevent without resorting to inspires on top of these other proposed changes, it would not be making them tankers/scrappers/brutes but it would be a noticeable help.

Edit: I really should have kept reading before posting this since my point was already made by others well before this.

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Originally Posted by Starsman I just hope, should they decide this "is not enough" they don't cramp even more into these powers. I already don't love the idea that technically all blasters now will have one power in the secondary that is nearly mandatory unless you are suicidal. I would had liked to see this kind of buff be a bit more distributed.

Because no other AT has this issue? You know lots of armored builds that skip the mez protections and the basic Sm/Le mitigation power?

The only thing that makes this odd is that the powers getting this change are not ones that have been nearly mandatory since launch, but rather have been mostly skippable. Nearly mandatory powers have always been a reality. Radiation infection, Unyielding, Foresight, Blaze, Fulcrum Shift, Healing Aura, MM Pets; the list is huge and every AT has them.

Somehow people keep missing the fact I keep pointing out once again. So let me try and lay it out...

I used TWO blasters as an example.. not one.. but people seem to be focusing on the one.. I used one that will have no improvement at all.. and one that will have great improvement.. in fact it would have IMO ridiculous improvement.. so I am not sitting here say waaaaaaaaaaaah my favorite blaster wont improve.. far from it.. my favorite blaster who is my name sake is built as a Ranged/Snipe specialist.. He will improve greatly with these changes... In fact when I am done changing his build slightly and getting those new IO that turn Knockback into Knockdown he will be quite a bit better than he is now.. and he is pretty darn good now..

My point was to show that that AT itself isnt improving across the board..

How do these issues solve the problem of Blasters spending more time mezzed than other AT's

How do these change the fact that the Blaster will still level slower that many other AT's

How do these change the fact that the one thing that the Blaster is supposed to bring to the team which is damage can be done as good or even better in some cases by other AT (who also get better HP or Mez protection and sometimes both )

How does this change the fact that in the end game where everyone gets a Nuke that recharges in 90 secs ( if i remember correctly ) which further affects the blasters role.

It addresses none of these Core issues IMO..

Also keep in mind that the average forum person is not the average or casual player. Many of us here have excellent knowledge of the game.. the ability to easily make a soft capped to several positions or type build.. etc etc..

My Elec/Elec wouldnt take those things because they dont fit the playstyle of building a sapper.. I dont need to take a snipe when I can drain a mob to zero end and keep them there.. Now if the Elec/Elec Blaster is built with powers that drain foes in melee range with PbAoE attacks why would its buff come from the one power that does the opposite of what the set appears to be built to do ?? Which is why I questioned earlier why wasnt this placed in lightning field ( which makes more sense to me )

I simply dont like the idea of sticking the buffs onto what appears to be on the surface random power choices that seem designed to purposely make it more DIFFICULT to get a better blaster when the blaster SHOULD have been better in the first place... and the blaster has had crap thrown at it for a while Defiance 1,0 remember that grand idea where it was said that maybe you should stay half dead to get the damage boost. yeah brilliant..

Fixing Snipes is good.. the fix tied to other powers and basically installing a gate where that fix wont work.. NOT GOOD...

Airhammer, at least you got something. Imagine how the people who took mental for psychic scream feel. They got left out in the cold because blappers also take their set.