Ask Anything: Ranged Blast and Blaster Manipulation Changes

Arbiter Hawk has excellent Poker face lol. He's done it before in the past with no issue actually. Synapse is kinda bad but he's good at masking it by throwing shiny at us lol...works everytime. Aeon uses the same technique or he makes a crazy face.

I think that Zwill is the best at the Poker Face technique...Black Pebble doesn't count.

I can't think of any more right now...

---

---

---

The Bacon Compels You.

---

I'll always be a "Champion" at heart. My server away from home.

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

Any chance of seeing some Absorb action happening to Force Field to keep it from continuing to be a one trick pony?

Possibly an Absorb pulse on Dispersion Bubble?

---

---

---

[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]

In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)

I think the proposed 22% to-hit mechanic for quick snipes is fine in general, but blasters still need to have access to snipes solo to be on an even footing with stalkers' Assassin's Strike.

To this end I propose that blasters (and blasters alone) be able to quick snipe when the target is less than 81 feet away. With the 22% to-hit bonus the snipe will quick-fire up to the maximum range.

Here's my analysis:

Part of the rationale behind making the snipe changes was to improve blaster performance along the lines of the mechanic that allowed stalkers to use Assassin's Strike in normal melee combat.

In order to use snipes in normal combat with anywhere near the same relative frequency that stalkers can use Assassin's Strike, solo blasters without /Devices have to do the following:

• Three-slot Hasten.
• Find 50-100% recharge somewhere else with +Recharge bonuses to make Hasten permanent.
• Three-slot Build Up with Membrane Exposure so that it can used used once every 33 seconds. This can't be done until level 47. For more slots you do this at an earlier level, but this is probably wasteful.
• Three-slot Aim with Recharge so it can be used once every 33 seconds.

To get that same advantage /Devices blasters can do the following:

• Four-slot Targeting Drone with three Membrane Exposure and one To-Hit buff.

To get that same advantage Time/ defenders and /Time corruptors can do the following:

• Three-slot Farsight with Membrane Exposure.
• Two-slot Power Build Up with Recharge.
• Three-slot Hasten with Recharge.
• Get to level 36 so the above powers can be slotted properly.

To get that same advantage non-Time/ defenders can do the following:

• Three-slot Tactics with Cytoskeleton Explosure.
• Put Kismet: +6% to-hit in Maneuvers, Steamy Mist, Combat Jumping, etc..
• Get to level 31 so the snipe and the other powers can be properly slotted.

To get that same advantage, any stalker can do the following:

• Get to level 9 or 11 so Assassin's Strike can be slotted reasonably.

Thus, the vast majority of blasters will not be able to use quick snipes without a very specific build and a lot of annoying clicking of Build Up and Aim, while stalkers get an absolutely trivial mechanic that requires no special build at all. Blasters won't be able to do this until a high level (or by wasting a lot of slots), while stalkers can do it after one or two runs in DFB.

The fact that Tactics and Farsight are common on teams is of little help. Do we really think that people forming teams will go through the following thought process: "Oh, we can take blasters because they can use snipe better since we've got two characters with Tactics?" This just doesn't wash, and it's inherently unfair to solo blasters, or blasters who play on small teams without team mates who have Tactics.

The idea of using a high to-hit bonus to be the condition that actives quick-snipe sounds logical enough on paper: snipes are slow because they require aiming. If you have a high to-hit bonus your aiming is already done.

But in the real world the reason snipers need a long time to aim is that they're at extreme range. If you're at short range, you don't need a long aiming time; it's like having an automatic to-hit bonus.

It's all well and good that snipes in general will fire quickly for all ATs if the to-hit bonus is at 22%. But for the stalker analogy to hold any water, blasters still need one more additional advantage that other ATs don't have with snipes, one that's equivalent to the stalker mechanic. I propose that we use range.

Since blasters are expert ranged fighters, snipes should fire quickly at short range. When a target closer than, say, 81 feet is selected, the orange ring should appear around the snipe to indicate that it can be fired quickly. Beyond 81 feet the snipe will have a long and interruptible animation. That 81 foot range would be boostable by all the various powers that increase range.

The client obviously knows the range of targets, because it won't let you fire a power if a target is out of range.

---

Gross over-generalization of what I'm seeing, but still:

Before insta-Snipe:
Build Up and Aim are awesome and we must build for recharge so we can use them again and again. Moar Damage!!

After insta-Snipe:
So much work. Can we get some easier way to insta snipe? Because clicking Build Up and Aim is such a burden and I hate doing it.

---

---

I'll always be a "Champion" at heart. My server away from home.

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

---

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.

---

[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]

In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)

Just for clarification on the conserve power to energize change, this will totally be a direct port of energize from the electric armor sets?

The only reason I ask this is that currently conserve power is on a base 600 seconds recharge timer with no way even when we werent ED capped of being anything but glacialy slow to come back up.

Whereas Energize has a base 120 sec recharge and is quite reasonable for what it is when slotted with the correct enhancements.

---

Now we aren't ready quite yet to let the catgirls out of the bag.... (quote from ex libris)

---

---

---

---

---

[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]

In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)

---

Well it looks like I am late to the party for the second day in a row.. darn job getting in the way of my CoH time...

I only have one suggestion which was made by someone else earlier in this thread and I thought it was a good one.

Understanding the reasoning behind Lightning Clap/Force of Thunder and now realizing that it will work out of combat as a buff an in combat as mez attack.. I would like to submit for your consideration changing the animation for Lightning Clap to the one from Lightning Rod (without the teleportation obviously)

This will work very well artistically and thematically both in and out of combat. Out of Combat you charge yourself with Electricity for the buff and in Combat You call down Lightning to Stun and Disperse your foes..

I think this would go over EXTREMELY well..

Thank You..

---

The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.

If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-

So, Arby Hawk, any chance you could just plain tell us all the secondary powers that are changing and how?

---

Issue 16 made me feel like this.
Warning: This poster likes to play Devil's Advocate.

---

Jesus Hawk slow down dude lol. I guess compared to when I first joined...man you guys are just kicking **** and takin' names.

---

---

---