Brandur1

I absolutely love Eldagores idea for snipes. Im going to add a few others into the mix and my own:

Four stage fix for snipes:
A: A damage buff to enable a basic SO slotted snipe to eradicate a minion or bring a lieut to 20-30%.
B: A range buff to the few attacks following after the snipe.
C: A secondary effect that usually generates no agro (the snipe itself still generates agro) (more on this below)
D: A weak AoE fear effect if the target is reduced to 0 Hp. (50% chance fear for even minions)

C cont:
This would be, as specified by Eldagore, unique to each set, my own ideas include:
Archery: Disorient. "Gotta pull the arrowhead out"
Assault rifle: 150% kb. (thus reliably KB bosses too) "Sniper! keep your head down!"
Dark blast: Extra strong fear effect. "It came from the darkness!!"
Electric: Static cage effect. "Zap!"
Energy: Extra damage to all within 6ft + knockdown. "Bkboom!"
Fire: Superior to the other sniper powers, but DoT. "Ow-Ow-Ow-Ow---dead"
Psionic lance v1: Less damage, better recharge, no interrupt, extra cast time, yes it wouldnt be a snipe anymore, just a semi-snipe.
or
Psionic lance v2: Mezmerize. "Zap! ZzzZZZzzzz"
Radiation blast: Make each bolt in the volley do incrementally more damage. "zap-Zap-ZAP"

For some types and situations 100% downing a minion would be the most beneficial, fx for the fear effect.
Others would prefer hitting a lieut, to cause a Mezz or to make him killable in a second attack, wasting buildup would actually become worth it to make the lieut one-shottable (thanks to the AoE fear effect accompanying a sniper-kill).
And yet others would prefer hitting the boss to layer on additional mezz and/or damage.

In effect this would enable each blaster powerset a new use for their snipe beyond just damage and make snipes a notable selling point for people to take Blasters. It is in my mind important that a snipe does not become a blaster version of Assassin strikes, the damage could be comparable, but it should never exceed the assassin strike.

Finally, it is my personal opinion that Snipes be removed from corruptor and defender powersets, in my mind it makes litle sense for combat-(support) and (near)total-support heroes to be given powers that require that they distance themselves from where they can do the most good. It would be cool to see them with Mezz's or build up's that improve heals/buffs instead.


My own opinion is that the Blaster archetype itself is not underperforming, but a number powers within the archetype that are. When i browse the powersets available to them I see a definite lack of the all-consuming/all-tanking/all-buffing powers that are made available to other archetypes, usually within their secondary sets.

If we compare some secondary Blaster sets to the sets Corruptors gain access to or Scrappers I see a strange effect happen:

Early blaster secondaries invariably include melee attacks and single target immobilises which are rarely useful later and never absolutely neccessary.
As opposed to early scrapper tank powers and Corruptor heals/debuffs which usually remain core powers throughout the game.
Many blasters see lots of skipped powers in this area.

Mid level blaster secondaries include lots of actually beneficiary powers. Build up, Targeting drone and Ice patch come to mind. Powers that help the primary damage dealer in the game actually deal damage and/or escape reprisal.

Late level blasters have lots of secondary powers that are simply ignored, even the penultimate and ultimate powers within sets are quite often only "arguably useful"
Power such as Time bomb & Gun drone, Power boost & Range Boost, Hot feet and more.
Even the powers which ARE useful at this stage pale in comparison to a corruptor's, Fallout, Fulcrum shift or a Chrono shift. I'd take a character with speedboost over a character with Gun drone anytime!

In other words, many secondary blaster powersets have a bad transition from earlygame to lategame, and many lategame secondary powers deliver disappointing results.

Not to mention that Blasters could use a slight (4-8%) increase in overall damage.

p.s

I am aware that many dont agree with my point on early melee blaster powers and immobilises becoming useless, but the way I think of it:
Many have fond memories of targetted immobilises saving their *** in pre-20 solo combat, but after that most enemy groups tend to mount fearsome ranged firepower of their own, and at later levels time is better spent casting something that does more damage. Not to mention that it is really difficult to properly deal out immobilises in full teamfights+proper trollers do it MUCH better.
The melee powers add a litle damage to your build, but isnt melee a really really bad place for a squishy character like a blaster to stay for long? Especially lategame where you're bound to take lots of AoE damage no matter how good your tank is, many TF AV's two-shot Blaster types with just their AoE bursts. Aside from the downsides im just as big a fan of Ice/Fire swords as anyone!

I dont know if it matters but i thought of a "fix" to both kinds of bomb, and the reasoning behind it makes sense in both for playstyle and realistically:

Turn them from old school "Pie plate mines" to highly advanced "sticky mines".

Remove the placement interrupt time and make both types a thrown device, with similar mechanics to placing an ignite or caltrops.
Then give trip mines a small activation delay (3-5 sec), during this delay it is visible to all players, if destroyed it will still blow up as normal.

Thus:
You'd be able to quickly throw a mine into combat safely.
You'd reduce risk of detection when placing bombs prior to combat.
You'd have more control over exact placement of the ensuing blast.

The trip mine delay is to:
A: accennuate that you threw a mine, not a grenade.
B: making it a bit harder to land ideal hits, increasing the skill and fun factor


Essentially this would turn the bombs from "big & unvieldy" to "flexible" and would represent thrown sticky bombs or such (making it even possible to "stick" a bomb in interesting places for interesting knockback effects, low ceilings and adjacent walls come to mind).

For PvE this means:
You can hang back from a teamfight and throw mines into it almost as you would any other TAoE. (But with a timer)
More elaborate takedown tactics.
More safety.

For PvP this means:
The mentioned changes dont really change preplaced minefields so Tp -> Mines still works normally.
In teamfights potential victims can see incoming mines when they've just been thrown, thus smart targets could just move away.


I hope you like the Idea and I really hope the devs notice it