ClawsandEffect

In a vacuum, no it wouldn't be overpowered. But you can't look at powersets without looking at all the other factors. Pre-IOs even, it wouldn't have been overpowered.

But in the current game, with it being possible to softcap to ranged attacks, and stay out of melee range of everything, while also having enough recharge to cut that self heal down to every 5-7 seconds, it would be overpowered to have an almost completely untouchable character healing itself every few seconds as part of it's attack chain. Dark Melee has a similar power, but as I already noted, it is found exclusively on ATs that have self heals already.

The devs will never take something AWAY from us because IOs made it too strong. If anything they'll adjust the IOs (BotZ, I'm looking at you). But not giving us something in the first place because IOs would make it too strong is completely reasonable.

It's obvious that blasters won't be getting Dark Blast in anything resembling it's current form, due to 2 of the set's defining powers being in Soul Mastery (Night Fall, and Soul Tentacles is a renamed Tenebrous Tentacles)

And since I still believe that the self heal thing is part of why we don't already HAVE Dark Blast, that's 3 powers you need to find replacements for. You can replace Night Fall with Dark Obliteration, but what do you give it in place of Tenebrous Tentacles and Life Drain?

I still like the idea of replacing Life Drain with a ranged Follow Up for a sustainable damage boost, but the loss of the 2 powers that would have been most useful for make that questionable.


Blasters probably will get something like Dark Blast eventually. But since it is going to definitely lose Nightfall and Tenebrous Tentacles, and most likely Life Drain as well, is it really going to be worth playing? I'd say, for me, no. I like Dark Blast on corruptors, because it gets good AoE ability very early (TT and Nightfall both come before level 20), since it's going to lose that, it wouldn't even be the same set for blasters.

I'm looking at the fact that every single other AT that has access to Dark anything has self heals as part of the ATs mitigation. Defenders, scrappers, tanks, brutes, corruptors, masterminds, and stalkers ALL have self heals in other sets available to them, so Life Drain isn't a big deal. Controllers get self heals, but they don't have access to Dark powers. Only Blasters and Dominators (out of the 10 basic ATs) don't get access to any kind of self heal inherent to a powerset. Not surprisingly, neither gets access to a Dark set. Calling that a coincidence strains credulity a bit.

If Life Drain were given to blasters, it would be the ONLY self heal available to a blaster within the primary or secondary set.

Blasters have no native defense or resistance, that is true enough. But the devs are just as aware as any of us what you can do with IOs and pool powers. A softcapped hoverblaster with a self heal as part of it's single target chain, is probably more than they are going to be willing to let us have. And it would be not only possible, but probably the first thing done with the set if it got ported with the self heal intact.

Now, if blasters had had a self heal BEFORE IOs were introduced to the game, it would be a different story. But they didn't, so it's very unlikely that they will get one now that you can make blasters damn near unkillable with IOs. I know my Sonic/Devices is almost impossible to kill under most normal circumstances, and that's just with Aid Self and 30ish% ranged defense. You wouldn't even have to get to the softcap, since Dark Blast debuffs to-hit as it's secondary effect.

So, basically, what your quoted bit at the top of my post and my point in the post add up to is blasters not getting Dark Blast. That is of course assuming we're both correct, which is completely possible in this case.

All of the above will occur. Because idiots are everywhere.

You touch Pinnacle you're gonna pull back a bloody stump.







I'm kidding......you won't pull back anything at all

I'd call an absolute refusal to ever create another character, or ever play villainous content a rule, and a pretty damn constraining one at that.

The only rule I have for myself is related to naming. If I can't spell the name correctly (without leetspeak, punctuation, or unusual letters involved) I think of something else to call it. I refuse to use any of the name workarounds, I see a period in any of my character's names it'll drive me nuts.

I try to avoid repeating powersets, at least within the same AT, but sometimes I have to (in cases where the character's concept absolutely requires a powerset I've already used)

But what happens when you exemp down and lose those set bonuses, forcing you to rely solely on the slotting that's in the power?

But it IS available to Corruptors and Defenders, who also share Dual Pistols.

Blasters have 2 primaries that don't get Aim, both of which are based on guns. Corruptors get 3 primaries that don't get Aim, one of which is Dark Blast.
Defenders get 4 secondaries that don't get Aim, because their Psychic Blast doesn't have it.
No one else in the game even gets access to Aim, and it doesn't seem to bother them.

I fail to see how Dual Pistols is gimped by not having Aim, but Defender Dark and Psychic Blasts aren't.

Sorry, I just don't think Blasters having a total of 2 powersets that lack Aim is worth all the crying I've seen about it.

Over my canceled subscription!!!

(I would say over my dead body, but I really can't bring myself to suffer physical harm over a server merge )

You clearly do not play /Regen. The whole SET is clickies.

Weird.

Not having Aim never seemed to bother Assault Rifle or Dark Blast users. Should THEY get more to make up for not having it?

Dominator Assault sets don't get Aim either, should they get more utility for not having it?

What about Controllers, they don't get Aim.

Sorry, saying a set should be OMGAWESOME to make up for not having a power that not everyone gets anyway just makes me laugh.

The devs learned their lesson from Willpower and Shield Defense and didn't make the powerset better than everything else available to the AT.

Stands to reason really.

You didn't really think Cole was going to let superpowered individuals band together in groups he isn't in control of, didja?

And Calvin Scott seems to see things the same way, i.e. if we split off into splinter groups we stand no chance at all of bringing Tyrant down.

No SGs makes perfect sense in the context of Praetoria.

From what I've heard, there is stuff that will still kill you, even on standard difficulty.

The universe implodes.

Bye.

Please take your sense of entitlement with you, there's plenty around here as it is.

I'll continue happily playing on Pinnacle, which, as far as I know, has NEVER had a queue to get in. Oh, wait, my bad, Pinnacle is too DEAD for the likes of you, how silly of me.

You wanted more people. You GOT more people, and now you're whining that you can't get on the server. CLASSIC.

Welcome aboard!

In order for people to team with you, you need to let them know what server you're playing on (no cross-server teaming), and around what time you play.

As far as advice goes, once you settle on a character, let us know what it is and we can give advice accordingly (Archetype and powersets, we don't need to know the origin)

Every blaster powerset plays differently, so advice given for one set may or may not apply to another.

General advice:

Don't bother buying Training Origin Enhancements, wait until level 12 when you can slot Dual Origins. (Go ahead and slot training enhancements that drop, just don't spend money on them)

Will probably be a good idea to take Stamina. It's a very helpful power that increases eth rate your endurance replenishes, you need to take 2 powers from the Fitness power pool in order to take it, and it unlocks at level 20. I recommend taking Hurdle and Health, and taking Stamina by level 24 (many people will tell you to take it as early as possible, if you have room in your build, by all means take it at 20, if not, it can wait a few levels) Some characters can get away with not taking Stamina, notably Regeneration and Willpower scrappers, and Willpower brutes and tanks.

Travel powers unlock at level 14, you have to take one power from the pool they are in to unlock them. I recommend taking Hasten, Hover, Combat Jumping, or Recall Friend to open the pools. You can take Air Superiority in place of Hover, a lot of melee characters do that.

At level 12 you get access to Dual Origin enhancements, and at level 22 you get access to Single Origin enhancements. In order to use Dual Origins, you must be one of the two origins of the enhancement, in order to use Single Origins, you must be the exact origin it is.

Read everything in the tutorial, it gives you a lot of the information you need to play.

Hope that helps!