Another neat trick you can do with Energy Manipulation and a high recharge build is use Kismet + Tactics + Power Boost... you should be able to have perma power boost or close to it and use the snipe without activation all the time (and hey it boosts your defensive toggles too!)
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
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Originally Posted by Alexander_Drako
I agree, but the thing is they said the new powers wont need to hit anyone to keep working. They also mentioned it was a Heal over Time, and that's it. If it gives me a small tic of healing for every enemy i hit, I'd take it, but if it will just be a weakened version of Pain's Soothing Aura, then I don't think this one is worth taking.
Honestly once they said powers would be along the lines of Drain Psyche I hoped they just added a Regen mechanic to Consume over the recovery. |
I don't care about the heal, I just want the damage. Currently, Blazing Aura is garbage but I took it anyway. It's garbage because it's short range damage, it's less damage and it's not cheap to run. If it were 30ft, it grants double coverage (Hot Feet is 20ft and my Hail of Bullets is 25ft) for a good deal of extra animationless DPS added right onto my PBAoE powers.
The heal is just gravy.
And they mentioned that the changes could be adjusted. There might be recovery added or maybe a reexamining of the endurance costs of the powers and such. *shrug*
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Regen does not "stack" in the way you're implying. Having existing regen buffs does not make additional ones any more valuable.|
Originally Posted by Alexander_Drako
Not neccesarily because you are missing just one small thing on the math. +Regen stacks with whatever regen you have already(health, bonuses, ect), while HoT works alone, maybe based on max health which isnt as accesible to blasters. Based on that math is that I say that +regen > HoT.
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Regen *does* scale with +maxhealth buffs while heals normally do not, but I believe if Arbiter Hawk feels that's problematic in beta testing he'll do what I know he's doing with Absorb: make the HoT more enhanceable than the +regen by a small amount. Say, 65% enhanceable instead of 50% enhanceable.
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It's tight but they can potentially do it. Base Tactics (and Farsight for that matter) is 10% on Corruptors. The Kismet IO adds another 6%. So the amount of enhancement needed in Tactics is:|
Originally Posted by Alexander_Drako
That's true for Fenders, but I think Ruptors will have a harder time keeping the perma potential, the Tactics boost of corruptors is considerably lower on them.
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10% * X + 6% = 22%
X = (22% - 6%) / 10% = 1.6
Working backwards through ED:
FinalEnhancement = 60 = 56 + (0.15 * (BaseEnhancement - 60))
BaseEnhancement = ((60 - 56) / 0.15) + 60 = 86.6667
A level 50 To Hit Buff IO has an enhancement of 25.5% so slotting four of them be enough to get a Corruptor to the magic 22%.
Also Corruptors do get the option for Focused Accuracy so if they can afford the Endurance then FA + Tactics + Kismet will cover that nicely. A sufficiently high recharge build could even do it with Soul Drain (the one in Dark AMstery, not Soul Mastery) but that's pushing the envelope for build quality.
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Maybe it will get buffed like /Ice's was? Here's hoping. I never took any of the two /fire auras because my blaster's concept is stealth, and I get too distracted that if I try to sneak with stealth+ss+proc I end up aggroing the world :P
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Originally Posted by Leo_G
I don't care about the heal, I just want the damage. Currently, Blazing Aura is garbage but I took it anyway. It's garbage because it's short range damage, it's less damage and it's not cheap to run. If it were 30ft, it grants double coverage (Hot Feet is 20ft and my Hail of Bullets is 25ft) for a good deal of extra animationless DPS added right onto my PBAoE powers.
The heal is just gravy. And they mentioned that the changes could be adjusted. There might be recovery added or maybe a reexamining of the endurance costs of the powers and such. *shrug* |
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
None of the sustain defensive powers being added, to the best of my knowledge, require actually hitting anything. Arbiter Hawk made it a point to mention that in the session: powers that hit things now you can still use that way, but if you choose to stand off away from the targets, those powers will still buff you even if they don't hit anything.
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Will this hold true for the changes to Touch of Fear in Dark Manipulation? It was originally a single target ability, and you cannot use it without an enemy.
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Jumped past this.|
Originally Posted by Another_Fan
Stalkers get it as well ? Missed that.
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I did a nice and loud fist pump when they mentioned it would affect Scrapper/Stalker snipes too.
But I'm not *quite* holding my breath. They did mention changes may be done to even out the buff across the AT. For Scrap/Stalk/Dom snipes, they may require more ToHit to make them faster, for all we know, which sounds fair since those snipes are in secondary/epics and not in a primarily ranged set.
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Oh, I agree with that, I know Hawk is very reasonable and all the changes have made me happy overall. I'll cross that bridge when we get to them, but I was expressing some tentative concern because overall(so far) +regen beats HoT. Maybe on this specific instance it wont be an issue in the long run at which point I'll just look cute and fluffy smiling and waving.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Regen does not "stack" in the way you're implying. Having existing regen buffs does not make additional ones any more valuable.
Regen *does* scale with +maxhealth buffs while heals normally do not, but I believe if Arbiter Hawk feels that's problematic in beta testing he'll do what I know he's doing with Absorb: make the HoT more enhanceable than the +regen by a small amount. Say, 65% enhanceable instead of 50% enhanceable. |
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The funny part is I've been leveling up an Beam Rifle/Devices Blaster with the long term intent of retconning my AR/Dev Blaster into a Beam/Devices. Not because I dislike AR but because Beam Rifle fits the character better (and I love the animations). This change is putting a LOT of pressure on that plan since it really boosts the appeal of AR/Dev. And keeping both isn't an option, I now have four versions of the same character and am trying to force myself to reduce that to two so I can actually play him more.
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Originally Posted by newchemicals
My AR/Dev blaster will require a big time respec when this hits. Also have to account for the KB to KD proc too.
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Is it weird that I was kind of hoping that one of the changes they were going to announce today was a fix to blaster's funky HP cap?
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Regen *does* scale with +maxhealth buffs while heals normally do not,
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MA Arcs: Yarmouth 1509 and 58812
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No that one you'll still need to attack with (or at least that's what was implied in the video). However the duration is 60 seconds so you won't need to use it a lot.
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Originally Posted by Crocodile
Will this hold true for the changes to Touch of Fear in Dark Manipulation? It was originally a single target ability, and you cannot use it without an enemy.
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You'll have another, more available, option for Disintegration Spread now. |
Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
The funny part is I've been leveling up an Beam Rifle/Devices Blaster with the long term intent of retconning my AR/Dev Blaster into a Beam/Devices. Not because I dislike AR but because Beam Rifle fits the character better (and I love the animations). This change is putting a LOT of pressure on that plan since it really boosts the appeal of AR/Dev. And keeping both isn't an option, I now have four versions of the same character and am trying to force myself to reduce that to two so I can actually play him more.
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Apparently, I play "City of Shakespeare"
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So are we supposed to retoggle powers or is it perma for toggled ones? This '60 seconds' thing isn't very clear.
...also, with it 'working through mez' I don't understand how this will affect it since blazing and chilling will be detoggled when you get mezzed.
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Ah yes, I forgot about this...|
Originally Posted by Crocodile
Will this hold true for the changes to Touch of Fear in Dark Manipulation? It was originally a single target ability, and you cannot use it without an enemy.
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Perhaps they weighed the utility of Dark Manipulation? Soul Drain's +dmg and it's affinity for close range? Honestly, I hope they change Dark Manipulation. I suppose it's a good melee-ranged option conversely to Energy Manipulation's affinity for long-range? I'd have preferred a non-suppressing toggle Death Shroud that was wide range and had a heal over time (copy of Cauterizing Aura/Chilling embrace)
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The toggle effects are supposed to sustain through mez, so I'm assuming any offensive toggles that get these sustain effects will no longer detoggle, but just their offensive effects will suppress when mezzed.
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Originally Posted by JayboH
So are we supposed to retoggle powers or is it perma for toggled ones? This '60 seconds' thing isn't very clear.
...also, with it 'working through mez' I don't understand how this will affect it since blazing and chilling will be detoggled when you get mezzed. |
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The problem I have with that argument is that it only has that DPA while your to hit is high. Sure Devices is going to be fine and Dark and Energy can probably pull it off well enough on high end builds. The question is what about the other secondaries? A Blaster with Build Up and Aim can have fast-snipe up about 50% of the time wheres a Blaster with Build Up alone only gets it about 25% of the time.|
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
For lack of having Aim it has a snipe that is almost twice as powerful in single target DPA terms than most other blaster primaries. Until someone can show me all the other 3.0 DS/sec ranged attacks out there that I forgot about, I'm not going to worry about AR just yet.
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So it does seem AR is going to get a strong single target alpha attack (which is needs badly) but it's sustained DPS isn't really improving unless paired with specific sets.
Now it may be that this works out well. After all AR does have Ignite which arguably does provide good long term ST DPS already which is why I'm not going to cry doom and gloom until we see it in action.
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Yeah but now I'm having trouble picking single target attacks. Do I really NEED 5 ST attacks and if not what do I drop?|
Originally Posted by Yogi_Bare
You'll have another, more available, option for Disintegration Spread now.
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Single Shot: Usable when mezzed, decent regen debuff for AVs when stacked with Disintegrate
Charged Shot: Usable when mezzed, more damage than Single Shot especially against disintegrated targets
Disintegrate: Like I'd skip this
Lancer Shot: Good damage (and range is getting buffed), high chance to spread Disintegrate, very useful for stunning LTs.
Penetrating Ray: VERY Good damage, auto Disintegrate spread.
Not to mention that Piecing Beam is pretty useful against single targets anyway so it's almost a 6th ST attack.
Maybe I'll take them all and claim I'm only doing it to stack Thunderstrikes. Alternatively I might just not slot Disintegrate very much and plan on using it to setup Penetrating Ray more than for the actual damage. Or underslot single shot and only use it for the Regen debuff.
A worry I have is that this change will be seen by the devs as the 'fix' for devices and we'll never see the set get any sort of balance pass. Sure it's now going to be very nice with any set that has a snipe but most of the powers in it are still very situational and when it's pared with a non-snipe primary it's still in just the same shape it used to be.
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The funny part is that they have no plans on granting respecs and happen to have picked several powers that most min/maxers skip outright for these changes.
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Its going to be about twice as good but up only about half the time. It will sometimes end up potentially lower than average in some pairings but significantly better in others. It may take more work to leverage but its maximum potential is vastly higher.|
Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
The problem I have with that argument is that it only has that DPA while your to hit is high. Sure Devices is going to be fine and Dark and Energy can probably pull it off well enough on high end builds. The question is what about the other secondaries? A Blaster with Build Up and Aim can have fast-snipe up about 50% of the time wheres a Blaster with Build Up alone only gets it about 25% of the time.
So it does seem AR is going to get a strong single target alpha attack (which is needs badly) but it's sustained DPS isn't really improving unless paired with specific sets. Now it may be that this works out well. After all AR does have Ignite which arguably does provide good long term ST DPS already which is why I'm not going to cry doom and gloom until we see it in action. |
Which one of these properties specifically concerns you the most?
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One thing at a time. Well, four or five things at a time.
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Originally Posted by Oliin
Is it weird that I was kind of hoping that one of the changes they were going to announce today was a fix to blaster's funky HP cap?
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Outside of the fact that, with the bump in range Blaze is getting, you now have fairly massive killing power in the 1-2 punch of Snipe/Blaze. This will make decking plus-level LTs easier.
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Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
Fire Blast: Given the short cast time on Blaze and the general high damage of the set I don't think there's a huge upgrade here.
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I've never seen them make a major change to powers and not give a freespec.
I will admit I haven't looked all that closely, having a ridiculous number of vetspecs anyway.
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Zwill said they were considering granting a freespec in I24, but it hadn't been decided yet.
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Originally Posted by JayboH
The funny part is that they have no plans on granting respecs and happen to have picked several powers that most min/maxers skip outright for these changes.
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Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
Honestly once they said powers would be along the lines of Drain Psyche I hoped they just added a Regen mechanic to Consume over the recovery.
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