Ask Anything: Ranged Blast and Blaster Manipulation Changes
By
Abysmalyxia,
Posted on: 2012-06-21 13:45 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
I'm glad to see Voltaic Sentinel is getting some love. I would be really happy to see it made a toggle. I would gladly pay the endurance cost of a T3 blast over time rather than have to resummon it repeatedly. (even if the duration is increased, but that's just me.)
While we're here can you give any insight into Time Bomb? Would you consider making it a long ranged summon.
How about an idea where taking time bomb gives you two powers: Time Bomb and Detonate. One summons the time bomb and, if left alone, it will blow in 15s. However if the player chooses, he can hit Detonate and blow it immediately. This gives it the flexibility of both obeying the cottage rule AND making it actually useful for players who choose to detonate.
Would you consider turning Trip Mine into a short range summon also? No other functional changes, since it's already pretty good, but give it possibly a 10 or 15 ft placement range.
As I understand it, Snipe times don't just magically snap down at 22%, they slowly approach that period. Is there any thought to removing the ability to interrupt them or at least reducing it, so that players who can get part of the way (say, by using Tactics or the Kismet IO) still have a potentially viable combat-snipe, albeit without the "Anybody get the number of that truck?"-level DPA? Because as it is, the buff seems very limited in an "all or nothing" fashion, at least with regards to practical use.
Quote:
Nice, any change to Time Bomb's current implementation would be appreciated. Overall, these changes look great on paper, Arbiter Hawke, great job |
Originally Posted by Arbiter Hawk
It's on our list of powersets to look at. That list is pretty long, though. But yes, we have a plan for something cool to do with Time Bomb to make it more useful in the future. No timeframe given for this, though!
|
I do have a question: are you planning to extend the range of the Blaster secondaries' Tier 1 attacks, like Web Grenade and Electric Fences, or is this limitation by design? They're currently at 50ft range whereas many others (like Mental's Tier 1 Subdual) are 80ft.
Quote:
Stalkers and scrappers can get ranged snipes from the epic pools that are affected by these changes.
|
Originally Posted by LittleGreyDuck
Um... Stalkers have Assassin Strike, which isn't a ranged snipe. And Scrappers... I don't know where you're getting "Scrappers have a Snipe" from at all, honestly.
Did I miss something? |
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.
 |
Quote:
Patron Power Pools have snipes.
|
Originally Posted by LittleGreyDuck
Um... Stalkers have Assassin Strike, which isn't a ranged snipe. And Scrappers... I don't know where you're getting "Scrappers have a Snipe" from at all, honestly.
Did I miss something? |
Quote:
This may be a common misconception. The two effects are functionally identical in most significant ways, so making them perform identically is just a question of doing the math on the scales of the effects. There is no difference between Regenerating 1% of your health per second and Healing 1% of your health per second.|
Originally Posted by Alexander_Drako
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?
|
Quote:
| 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. |
There are two important ideas to consider when looking at character durability - Mitigation and Avoidance. In City of Heroes, Defense is our Avoidance stat - high defense sets such as Super Reflexes have high Avoidance but low Mitigation. Resistance, Regeneration, Absorb, and Healing are all Mitigation stats - they take damage that you've taken and make it matter less.
How durable any given character can be is often called Effective Health. This is a combination of that character's Avoidance and Mitigation. What you are describing above is not an inherent attribute of Mitigation, but rather a scenario in which one the defense-based character's Effective Health is much higher than the Regen based character's.
Quote:
| 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. |
Quote:
| *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. |
Quote:
Yes - epic and patron pools have snipes for stalker/scrapper.
|
Originally Posted by LittleGreyDuck
Um... Stalkers have Assassin Strike, which isn't a ranged snipe. And Scrappers... I don't know where you're getting "Scrappers have a Snipe" from at all, honestly.
Did I miss something? |
My new Youtube Channel with CoH info
You might know me as FlintEastwood now on Freedom
Quote:
Psst... electric has a snipe. |
Originally Posted by Arbiter Hawk
Dual Pistols' animation times are being shortened to raise the set's DPA across the board. Ice Blast, Sonic Attack, and Electric Blast are on Synapse's and my radar to make sure they perform up to par with the new blast set paradigm, and will likely see additional changes to ensure that they are not "left behind" on account of not having a snipe.
|
I am somewhat curious as to why it was decided to put the "sustain" in Lightning Clap as opposed to Lightning Field, which would be more in line with things like Fire Manipulation, Ice Manip and Devices. I know I haven't taken Lightning Clap in ages.
Also, if Voltaic is going to have its uptime looked at, can it be a bit more aggressive? It doesn't help if my "Tier 3 blast" is following 10 feet behind me and not engaging anything as I move from spawn to spawn. (Adding a chaining effect would be nice, too, giving Elec. blast something pretty much every other elec. set has somewhere, keeping the theme going.)
* yes, I'm particularly interested in anything happening to Elec/Elec, or even one of the two - first 50 was an Elec/Elec back in I3/I4, have recreated that one a few times with the same sets "just because," and have other elec blast and elec manip characters. I like electric.
Quote:
Unless you are slept.
|
Originally Posted by Arbiter Hawk
This may be a common misconception. The two effects are functionally identical in most significant ways, so making them perform identically is just a question of doing the math on the scales of the effects. There is no difference between Regenerating 1% of your health per second and Healing 1% of your health per second.
|
My new Youtube Channel with CoH info
You might know me as FlintEastwood now on Freedom
Quote:
Water Blast is on Beta now! Go check it out, it's a really fun set! |
Originally Posted by U_S_C_I
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.
|
I am duly chastened and edu-mah-cated regarding Scrapper/Stalker snipes, thanks.
(Of course, I can't imagine ever taking a snipe from the pools on either AT, but my playstyle isn't your playstyle, boom-de-yadda boom-de-yadda.)
On Protector...
Hero Woods Cutter, level 50 Katana/Regen Scrapper
Villain ProPaine, level 50 Plant/Fire Dominator
Villain Amber Ellie Dee, level 50 Sonic/Radiation Corruptor
Hero Coruscation Agent, level 50 Fire/Devices Blaster
Quote:
Eh... again this would add to the additional aggro issue of Voltaic. I like the toggled Voltaic idea much better.
|
Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
(Adding a chaining effect would be nice, too, giving Elec. blast something pretty much every other elec. set has somewhere, keeping the theme going.)
|
My new Youtube Channel with CoH info
You might know me as FlintEastwood now on Freedom
Quote:
We've considered it, but we would prefer to fix layered and repeated crowd control problems from the NPC side rather than from the player side. I want to add CC suppression to NPC CC powers at some point in the future - maybe i24, more likely i25 or later. This would dramatically lower the performance delta between characters with access to status protection and those without. But it's a massive amount of data to parse and then change, so it's a timely and costly endeavour.
|
Originally Posted by khorak_EU
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.
|
Quote:
Here is where a few more tweaks for blasters could be done allowing for blasters to get fast sniping earlier/easier.|
Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
I'm not sure I agree with the statement that "all ATs can use it equally". Yes all ATs get access to To Hit but not all ATs get access to it in the same amount. There are currently 6 ATs with Snipes: Blasters, Corruptors, Defenders, Dominators, Stalkers and Scrappers.
Blasters: Most Blasters are reliant on Aim/Build Up to get FastSnipe. Three sets can get it permanently with varying degrees of difficulty. Corruptors and Defenders: Can always get it using Tactics and Kismet (easier for Defenders than Corruptors), some powersets have an easier time (i.e. Farsight or Focused Accuracy). Dominators: Two secondaries can get it through Aim or Build Up and all doms can get a limited uptime through Soul drain in APP. Scrappers/Stalkers: Mostly get it through Build Up. Claws and Invulnerability Scrappers can get Perma-FastSnipe through their powers (although I can't actually imagine them doing this due to the need for 3+ enemies in melee range for Invulnerability and the redraw for Claws I can't see it being worthwhile) EDIT: Good to know, thanks . |
1. Raise the to hit buff from tactics. (and blaster assault too!)
2. Have a Blaster IO that gives +to hit buff.
3. Look at changing or adding in new IO sets with +to hit buff.
H: Blaster 50, Defender 50, Tank 50, Scrapper 50, Controller 50, PB 50, WS 50
V: Brute 50, Corruptor 50, MM 50, Dominator 50, Stalker 50, AW 50, AS 50
Top 4: Controller, Brute, Scrapper, Corruptor
Bottom 4: (Peacebringer) way below everything else, Mastermind, Dominator, Blaster
CoH in WQHD
Quote:
Would it possible to make it so that Blasters, with the same investment as a Corruptor, can make their snipe permanently instant?|
Originally Posted by Arbiter Hawk
It's true that To-Hit is somewhat arcane, but this mechanic actually boils down pretty simply:
-"Hit Aim, Snipe becomes instant." -"Pop 3 small yellows, Snipe becomes instant." -"Get a big team with people running leadership, Snipe becomes instant." Or, most simply, "If you get a yellow ring around your Snipe attack, you can click it and use it in combat." I've spent at least 30 hours testing all of these mechanics on Blasters internally, and our QA team has been sending me messages like "When will this go live? I want my live blaster to be this fun!" We kicked around a number of possible activation conditions before settling on To-Hit - High health enemies, low health enemies, enemies at long range, enemies at short range, Just used Aim, Just used Build-Up, Your last snipe was interruptible, etc. - but ultimately I do actually think To-Hit accomplishes our goal in a number of ways. This redirect condition is simple enough that all ATs can use it equally, and easy enough to understand that players shouldn't have a problem getting used to it. It also is increasingly more probable of being met as team size increases, which helps counteract the perception that snipes are less and less worth using as team size increases. |
As of now Blasters cannot leverage tohit like other ATs, so I wouldn't consider that equal if that was the original design intention.
Can you give us a clear answer why T9 Blaster powers that crash weren't addressed with these other nuggets your giving us. A Brute Scrapper, or Tank never question taking their T9 attacks and neither should Blasters.
Quote:
I am pretty sure they already stated they are addressing AT items in steps, and they have confirmed the problem may get looked at in the future already. Patience is key.
|
Originally Posted by Xprom
Can you give us a clear answer why T9 Blaster powers that crash weren't addressed with these other nuggets your giving us. A Brute Scrapper, or Tank never question taking their T9 attacks and neither should Blasters.
|
My new Youtube Channel with CoH info
You might know me as FlintEastwood now on Freedom
Quote:
They already answered that. They have a lot of things on their plate and they're focusing on parts at a time. A change to crashing nukes won't just affect Blasters but Corruptors and Defenders too.
|
Originally Posted by Xprom
Can you give us a clear answer why T9 Blaster powers that crash weren't addressed with these other nuggets your giving us. A Brute Scrapper, or Tank never question taking their T9 attacks and neither should Blasters.
|
What exactly is 'sustain' anyway?
"Don't you know dead is spelled m-e-n-t-a-l in CoH? - SapphireShot
Quote:
Its really the grief potential in teams where the radial KB is a problem and with the huge bonus the power gives (being basically arm twisted to take it, but not "required") its best if the power is as "team friendly" as possible. Which is why I would request for the change to KD. Also, the upcoming KB to KD proc is not an option. Someone who isn't aware of the radial KB or uses it just to use it, it just asking for /facepalm.
|
Originally Posted by Arbiter Hawk
Right now, I think it's ok as-is, but beta testing and feedback may prove me wrong. Given its recharge time is fairly low and the duration of the buff it provides is 60 seconds, I think you'll usually be able to use it before getting near a spawn if you don't want the knockback aspect of the power.
|
H: Blaster 50, Defender 50, Tank 50, Scrapper 50, Controller 50, PB 50, WS 50
V: Brute 50, Corruptor 50, MM 50, Dominator 50, Stalker 50, AW 50, AS 50
Top 4: Controller, Brute, Scrapper, Corruptor
Bottom 4: (Peacebringer) way below everything else, Mastermind, Dominator, Blaster
CoH in WQHD
Quote:
Powers that sustain you. :/
|
Originally Posted by Eldritch_Knight
What exactly is 'sustain' anyway?
|
My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."
Quote:
Can't remember how exactly Hawk described it, but the way I see it, 'sustain' is a mix of downtime suppression and overall survivability. 'Sustain' isn't meant to make a Blaster a tank, it's meant to get you from one group of foes to the next and improve your general effective health.|
Originally Posted by Eldritch_Knight
What exactly is 'sustain' anyway?
|
Actually, I'd bet the design goal behind 'sustain' is to improve those things on a Blaster while *not* making them alphastrike taking tanks.
I know that some people mentioned that Ice Blast doesn't have a snipe attack, but it does have two ranged hold attacks. I always assumed that was why it didn't have a snipe attack. Although it would be nice if the Bitter Freeze Ray activation time wasn't so dang long (2.50s).
The Ice secondary could use some improvements. My old 50 Ice/Ice blaster only ever took Chilblain, Build Up, Ice Patch, and Freezing Touch. The others just didn't seem all that useful, nor worth delaying the Fitness pool powers for (yea, she's old).
There is one question I have for the devs. Except for Devices, all the other secondaries are elemental based with attack powers. How come there's no brawler secondary with straight up punches and some self buffs? Between Martial Arts, Super Strength, and Street Justice there are plenty of animations already in the game. 4-5 attacks, Build Up, and some other self buffs to round it out and you're done.
Quote:
Stalkers and Scrappers share Patron Pools, which grants them access to a Ranged Snipe.
|
Originally Posted by LittleGreyDuck
Um... Stalkers have Assassin Strike, which isn't a ranged snipe. And Scrappers... I don't know where you're getting "Scrappers have a Snipe" from at all, honestly.
Did I miss something? |
I am the 99%. Occupy the World.
Minister of Infinity's Secret Police, Official Mooch of dUmb and League, Official Purveyor of Free Straws, the Most Interesting Man in the World.
http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
Did I miss something?
On Protector...
Hero Woods Cutter, level 50 Katana/Regen Scrapper
Villain ProPaine, level 50 Plant/Fire Dominator
Villain Amber Ellie Dee, level 50 Sonic/Radiation Corruptor
Hero Coruscation Agent, level 50 Fire/Devices Blaster