Ask Anything: Ranged Blast and Blaster Manipulation Changes

Hi all!

There’s been a lot of discussion about the upcoming changes both to Blast sets and to the Blaster AT, and I wanted to try a fun kind of thread that can both centralize discussion about them and give you all some insight into when we make changes, and why we choose the changes we do. So, from now until 5 PM pacific today, I’ll be here on this thread answering any questions you have about any of the upcoming changes! I probably won’t be able to get to every single question, and I won’t be talking about any additional unannounced features for Issue 24, but feel free to ask me anything about Archetypes, existing powersets, or game balance. Thanks, and looking forward to this discussion!

-Arbiter Hawk

I know some sets (ice and DP) don't have a real snipe per say. Are you looking at doing anything to those sets to level the playing field after the snipe change or just banking on their unique nature being enough?

Will the heal/absorb/recovery of the new Manipulation powers be enhanceable? For example, after I24 is implemented, will I be able to slot a Healing Enhancement into Blazing Aura in Fire Manipulation?

Why did you guys feel the need to change the names of certain powers, like Cloaking Device, when there was nothing wrong with the name in the first place?

Will there be any extra attention paid to snipe-less sets besides bumping up the range on their 40-50 range 'heavy hitters'?

And if there's a set that still underperforms relative to the other sets after this change, will their be an opportunity for additional buffs to be tested during beta? In other words, are you willing to buff individual sets outside of the overhaul to snipes, heavy hitters, and the Blaster secondaries if necessary? Or will that not fit in to the I24 schedule?

Because playing Elec Blast makes me wish I was dead.

EDIT: Nevermind, you answered both right away.

Buff Trick Arrows!

Trickshooter's Characters | @Trickshooter @Brightside

I have a lot of concerns about the new changes. I'll try to give the main ones.

Is there a simpler mechanic that can be used on snipes? There's no way I'll be able to explain to a new player why their snipe is sometimes fast and sometimes slow without having to first explain to them the game's underlying mechanics, including the distinction between accuracy and tohit.

I fear that the huge buff to specific powers in the secondaries is not only turning all the sets in to stone armor where most of the powers are useless except for one overpowered one, but also that this is going to make future balancing of the powers impossible without nerfing these extremely powerful ones.

Are the i24 changes expected/hoped to be enough to fix blasters? (Recognizing that snipeless sets may need a special look.) Is this step one of a fix, or is this all that is planned?

For Blasters using Build Up to FastSnipe requires it to be ED capped for To Hit or the use of a Kismet IO. While this isn't to bad for level 50s (and especially level 50s with IO access) it's not particularly good for mid-level Blasters on SOs (since you either have to 6-slot build up or choose either recharge or FastSnipe). Are you looking at making FastSnipe more easily attainable through Build Up in the mid-levels or is the intent that BU require significant effort to attain FastSnipe?

Is there any possibility of getting Devices looked at? I realize the perma-FastSnipe is a huge buff for it but it would still be nice to have Trip Mine and/or Time Bomb changed to be a bit faster to use.

First, an aside: is it intended that dominator Flares lost its secondary effect back during the dom buff? At the moment it does almost exactly the standard damage for a 3s recharge blast (it only seems to have the slight bonus given to all attacks whose damage isn't delivered in one chunk, which is much less than the bonus DoT usually given to fire attacks), which is counter to the usual practice of giving fire attacks a bonus DoT.

Second, is there going to be anything else done to allow dominators to take better advantage of these snipe changes? Most doms with snipes can't get to those levels of +tohit without inspirations (I think only /elec can), which aren't a sure thing. If I recall correctly one of the reasons given for keeping moonbeam in the dark assault set was that snipes in general were going to be buffed, but as it stands most doms can't actually make much use of the buff.

Third, are you going to look at the 'fool' magic buff power? At the moment the 3% tohit debuff it lays on you is essentially ignorable, but if it makes the difference between being able to fast cast your snipe or not, I could see it getting annoying very fast - especially since it lasts 20 minutes and can't be removed. It's likely not a problem if you're getting over the threshold using aim, but could definitely be an issue otherwise.

Fourth, is blaster thunder clap going to remain as KB rather than KD? At the moment it's not super important, but once there's this new, strong incentive to take and use the power for a purpose other than stunning/KBing the mobs, the possible annoyances multiply greatly. Using it between combats can partially alleviate that issue, but if the buff goes down at a bad time, having to choose between scattering the mobs or not refreshing the buff could be problematic.

Could you provide a list of the newly changed secondary powers with some of the numbers involved?

EDIT: and maybe put it into the first post, so we can directly reference things?

Some of the deiscussions that have been kicking around since the stream yesterday have noticed that due to the higher buffs Defenders and Corruptors get from Tactics towards the Insta-Snipe than blasters, outside of /Devices, and can a lot more easily make it perma. So is there a chance that Defiane get a small (ish) +ToHit buff along with the +Damage buff from using powers. Scaled like the +Damage buff with different powers giving differing amounts. Not enough to trigger the Insta-Snipe on their own, but enough to do so with Tactics or Targeting Drone moderatly slotted.

This will help all Snipe set on blasters acess the Insta-Snipe more, though not permanently.

This will help the sets without Aim achieve the Insta snipe more.

This will give a buff to the sets without a Snipe.

Does this sound unreasonable or over powered?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forbin_Project Then it's time for them to get off the cross, use the wood to build a bridge, and get over it.

I have seen that for the most part Regen outperforms Heal over Time, this is specially true for the two incarnations of Pain Domination's infamous bubble. How will Cauterizing Aura(sp?) be taking those into account? Any chance this power gets its radius increased a bit?

I am also a bit concerned about mitigation, while you said on the stream that these changes will definitely help with the blaster not needing to stop to rest between every spawn it still doesnt change the fact that a Super Reflex will always be more durable than a Regen(without taking min/maxing builds into account), specially considering the fact that the biggest problem blasters seems to face is they get flattened in the middle of the fight.


Has it ever be considered to buff the defensive power pools(Maneuvers, Combat jump, Weave) to blasters to make them more appealing to them? I believe that this might help both trends of blaster players, since those that want to go pure damage could do so, while those that want something a bit more sturdy could give up a little damage powers in exchange of a few others. Even with all of those toggles they won't be on par with any scrapper set that I can think of, but it might help with the recurring trend that blasters simply dont do enough damage for the huge lack of survival they currently have on normal situations.

*takes a deep breath* and for the last bit, I know nukes wont be touched, but I have brought up a few times that pre-Judgement this was no issue, however, a team with 2 judgement users can clear a mob faster and without any drawback than a character who decided to take a chance to use a nuke, currently the blaster either takes a chance and goes nuke the spawn first and tries to kill them all or he risks to be outdamaged by two /defenders/ with judgement for trying to keep his survival rate higher.

Any chances for the development of a water and/or earth based blaster set? I know you won't talk about upcoming changes, but it's just a thought.

Did you consider giving Blasters mez protection as well? Not a huge amount, but enough to deflect a single hold or sleep or such (perhaps not knockdowns, just the instantly disabling effects). If you jump into the deep end and let a whole lot of mez fall on your head, that's your own problem.

The idea, as far as I see it, should be that a solo Blaster should be able to at least leverage its damage into obliterating the real threats first, like a Stalker but at a distance instead of with a cloak in melee, and mez protection would be essential in allowing you to claw down those targets before you're turned into a Held pinata that only has two low level attacks.

Hope this hasn't been asked yet...only skimmed through the first page!


But Water Blast...the one attack's range (forgot name, Water Jet?) went from 80 ft. to 40 ft.


Will this be turned back into an 80 ft. ranged attack when i24 hits or no?

Will the changes in range for the 40ft ranged attacks happen across the board for the game, or is it solely for the blaster sets? Specifically speaking, will it also effect some powers for the Kheldian archetypes (especially for Warshades)?