Defenestrator

Your first link was from 14 months ago.

Your second link was from nearly 7 months ago.

Your third link was from almost 3 months ago (and posted as secondhand information -- how do you know HE didn't hear wrong)?

And they all say different things.

Which one of them is right? And did their minds change in between?

I remember that Skills were coming for Issue 3. You remember Statesman saying that, right?

I also remember Statesman mentioning that customizable powers would be in issue 2 or 3. Still not here.

Point is: things change. People change their minds.

Would vehicles be nice? Yes.

Would vehicles be workable? I don't see it.

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We won't be able to ride in/on vehicles ever, due to the way the map is, but States seemed to like the idea of being able to throw the cars around...


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Wrong. Vehicles are coming in a future expansion and you will upgrade them through influence.

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Hmm...information given as a "maybe" months and months ago versus something Statesman said at GenCon less than a week ago....

You do realize that they might have changed their minds on this, right?

Actually, Eden is two full-time guys. Everyone else is a freelancer. It only seems like more because some people (like CJ Carella) pump out a lot of work.

This is not a bad thing as they have plenty of freelancers producing work.

If they were asked to make additions to the book at Origins, that would indeed cause delays. Chances are parts of the book would need to have more artwork produced, researched and written (especially since Sonics and Arrow powers have been jostled around), and portions of the book probably needed to be re-typeset.

Yeah, you were forced at gunpoint to do those monkey herding groups.

You do realize that the way the game will work in Issue 5 that that 1000 monkey total will probably take about as long as it did to herd 10,000 monkies, right?

All the 10,000 monkey badge would prove is that you accomplished the feat when it was much, much, much easier to get the badge. Nothing more.

EDIT: gah! typos!

Defiance is completely awesome at low levels. It certainly allowed me to take out some groups of MOBs that I otherwise would have been unable to.

As some point though Defiance becomes relatively worthless. Blasters at higher levels tend to either be healthy or dead. If something knocks me down to 40% or lower, I start chewing green chiclets and maybe even running.

I'm hoping a balance can be found.

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I will now perform a hitherto undiscovered poem by one S. Baldric for the first time. It is believed to be the complimentary piece to his most famous work, "The German Guns".

*ahem*

Doom, Doom, Doom
Doom, Doom, Doom.
Doom, Doom,
Doom, Doom.
Doom, Doom, Doom.

Thank you.

*Runs away before anyone can throw rotten fruit with too much accuracy. *

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Sodoff, Baldric.

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"George Vasilakos Zombielord Eden Studios"?

"All Flesh Must Be Eaten" George Vasilakos?

Is Vasilakos the root of the name Vahzilok?

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Yes, it's the same George Vasilakos who published "All Flesh Must Be Eaten," which was why Jack named the City of Heroes Zombie Lord "Dr. Vahzilok."

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Stamina- So in other words, he's gonna leave the base system BROKEN and force some AT Builds to give up 3 power selections for Stamina just to be able to WORK? I guess not even CRITICAL issues get the attentions they needed let alone Quality of Life issues...

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Ahem...

YOU DO NOT NEED STAMINA. The "requirement" of Stamina is simply in your head. The Necessity of Stamina has been greatly exagerated.

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I don't believe I need stamina for most of my characters. However, other have stated some of the builds just do not work right without it.

For years, I was anti-stamina and anti-hasten (I still don't see ANY instances where Hasten is "needed". Ever), but recently, I've begun to see how some genuinely need Stamina.

I'll never get Stamina for any of the Characters I don't want it on, same with Hasten.

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I've said this in other threads, but it's actually Hasten that causes the need for Stamina in most builds. I really don't think people really comprehend the massive amount of endurance you chew through with Perma Hasten. I've been building characters without Hasten and see a lesser need for Stamina, which means I can either avoid Stamina or not use 5 enhancement slots to max it out.

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Main worry:

This means one of our main fixes is... more damage.

1) Strings attached however. It better be a massive increase because if you thought it was hard getting a heal before, just wait till the team starts TELLING the defender not to because they want more damage.

team blaster: from dead to deader.
Solo: possibly less downtime [take on one group normally for a better chance at a full alpha-kill on the next? THIS could be interesting in a way...]


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That would be a team I leave. Quickly. One of the requested fixes for blasters was "more damage." I don't think blasters are going to be given significant defense or a status protection power of any sort, so what else is there? The blaster motto has always been "Kill it fast or die fast." This allows the "Kill it fast" to be faster.

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2) Hopefully this doesn't come with the damage debuff I fear it may.

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As with the Desperation stuff, let's wait and see. I think this would lead to revolt.

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3) Will it really be all that useful? Usually we go from full-green to orange or blinking red for about a SECOND, before the rest of the volley's animations finish us off.

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I guess it depends on the situation. I can remember many times where I wouldn't have died (and this is with many characters, not just blasters) if only I could have done a sliver more damage to the bad guys before they got that last shot in. Blasters will now have that opportunity.

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So unless its a fully linear thing, or a series of buffs that activate for a bit of time when we fall under certain numbers... I'm not sure we'll even GET to taste that extra damage in the later levels where we'd need it.

Early on? sure, hellions can take a while to finish you off. But later? ... oops!

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On the contrary, I can see this being very useful at later levels. Most blasters have 2 decent AOEs that, when combined, can take out packs of even level or +1 level minions. This might help bump that to +2s (but it would be risky).

My only concern regarding this whole thing is all of this is meaningless if the blaster damage cap doesn't get raised to 500% (which the scrappers currently have).

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Edit to add: I've also been in situations where a controller's healers are just plain superior to mine. I play a Dark Miasma defender, and the heals in question were kinetics. I know that Twilight Grasp has a pretty substantial heal and that Transfusion isn't far off from it. I'm not saying that there should never be an occasion when a Controller can outheal a defender, but it does seem that controller secondaries are very close to defender primaries in capability.

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I don't have firm numbers on this, but I have extensively played a Dark Defender and a Kinetics Controller.

A couple of observations:

1) A Kinetics Defender's Transfusion is much better than a Kinetics Controller's Transfusion.

2) A Kinetics Defender's Transfusion is somewhat better than a Dark Defender's Twilight Grasp.

Never really been able to compare my Kinetics heal to an equally levelled and slotted Dark Defender though.

Here's why Transfusion gives a bigger green number though:

It's more difficult to use.

Why is this?

1) If the target dies while the power is being activated, Transfusion will not work. This is not the case with Dark Miasma.

2) Transfusion works only around a target, whereas Dark Miasma works about the character, making it easier to target.

3) Dark Miasma debuffs more on the target than Transfusion does.

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Yep it makes me want to check out what else Top Cow has to offer in the way of comics. I swear Marvel sucks lately, and DC isn't far behind. I can use more comics like the one I read today.

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Was never a big fan of the Top Cow line, as a whole. I think they were the studio producting Witchblade and The Darkness. Meh.

Some of the more recent Wildstorm stuff (now owned by DC) has been intriguing, though with an erratic schedule. Both "Planetary" and earlier issues of "The Authority" were outstanding.

To be honest, I haven't bought any new comic books in about a year. They were just getting too expensive for subpar stories (mostly). Marvel had a couple of decent titles (Bendis' Daredevil) but had been going the way of DC with their "hip, new" Ultimate titles. BLEH!

DC was also a mixed bag. Some of their Vertigo stuff was fun (100 Bullets, Hellblazer) but I was really in a disconnect with their iconic heroes.

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Dark/Psy Defender

While i don't doubt their control potential, I heavily doubt their soloability. Psy blast is hands down the worse defender secondary, and i can vouch for that as i play a defender with a psy secondary. It does absolute minimal damage. And when i make that statement i don't look at per hit, i look at damage per second (DPS). Reason why DPS is so horrible is for the fact that everything in the psy blasts set takes a really long time to execute, all really long recharges, and cost alot of endurance. While the powerset offers several control type powers, none are effective enough to consider a control power, with the exception of scramble thoughts. That is still however, single target mez, with again minimal dmg. This build could probably group well with the control powers it has, however soloing would be painfully slow, and not worth it at all. It could be my huge bias against psy blasts, but in all honesty, the powerset is horrible, I wish I never picked it.

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Everything in the Psi powers takes a long time to execute?

You have a snipe which takes 6 seconds. This is the same as any sniper attack.

The first power in the set (Mental Blast) is unbearably long (2.7 seconds). Subdue and Telekinetic Blast fire off very fast (1 second on TB!). The recharges are about standard with every single other defender set. The only thing missing is that one really fast recycle power (Rad has Neutrino Bolt, but has slower recharges going down the line). But this doesn't matter because how often does a Rad Defender actually fire off a Neutrino Bolt? Defenders in groups are generally applying debuffs or heals instead of damage.

The only real problem I've found with Psychic is the 50% resistance robots get against it. Other than that, it's a good set. (Taking Telekinetic Blast helps here, though, as it has a smashing damage component to it.)

With the huge boost to Tar Patch in Issue 4, a Dark/Psychic defender can dish out a good amount of hurt with relative safety. (Darkest Night + Tar Patch + Psychic Scream)

I've worked up to level 23 on this build so far. No problems at all soloing. No problems in groups (even SKed up to take on some of the nastier baddies in the game).

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Just because the devs didn't say what you want to hear doesn't mean they didn't show you respect. And with the level of insults, conspiracy theories, and outright lies the vocal minority has provided in the last few weeks, it's you that needs to earn respect at this time.

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Speaking of the use of hyperbole and hysteria to convince people to not listen to what you're saying... You're mirroring what you're complaining about to a "T", while also exaggerating its occurrence.

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As someone who actually tried to read and constructively contribute to the Regen changes thread, I can assure you this is not hyperbole. After reading through enough insults, conspiracy theories and outright lies I gave up.

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A ton of players have quit and so Cuppajo (bless her heart) is worried.

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A ton have quit? Just how many is that? Is there proof? I know of absolutely no one that has actually quit over any changes.

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Judging from the server loads the past couple of nights (in an admittedly non-scientific way, of course) I'd say the opposite is true.

But then again, if 10 people quit and they weighted 200 pounds each, I guess that would constitute "a ton of people."

Cuppa -- please pass this along to Statesman, Positron and the rest of the hardworking folks at Cryptic -- lots of us actually appreciate what the Devs do. Please keep up the good work and please keep working to keep this the best MMO on the market.

If the SJ/SS nerf was brought on only by PvP, they would have made it a PvP only change like they have done to several other powers.

OOOOO...Logic!

So can we stop with the tinfoil hat "the PvPers have ruined everything!" mantra?

The travel power nerf is a little disconcerting. I'll give you that one.

But the perma-MoG and perma-Elude removal was something I saw coming a mile away. If you've been reading the scrapper changes at all you would see the testing was done in PvE. Neither power was meant to be this super, uber buff to be on all the time. A typical tactic from reflexes scrappers was to respec out everything except the starting power, Practiced Brawler, Quickness and Elude. That right there should have been a red flag on that one.

Other than that, I can't see what else is being changed solely due to PvE, and just about every change being made is a buff to an existing power.

Yeah, life's rough.

(Also, if you look at the history of this game, there's a 10:1 ratio of powers that have been enhanced versus nerfed.)

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Energy's all about the snipe. That shorter interrupt/animation REALLY makes it worthy of use.

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I'm not sure. I haven't played energy blast, but if I have a 3rd blast with a pretty quick animation, I doubt I'd use snipe still. Though without SC I might have too.

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Strategically, snipe attacks are great. If you come on a group with one mezzing minion in the group, a slotted snipe will take him out. If it's a mob type resistant to your damage, Aim + Build Up + Snipe will take him out.

Also, frequently you can snipe a mob out and not aggro the rest of his buddies. And even if you do, that means your other attacks can be used at range and then you finish whatever's left with your melee and short range attacks.

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I know people bring up the 500% damage cap for scrappers and I've heard that this is because being in melee is much more dangerous. So what if blaster melee attacks had the 500% damage cap while the ranged had the normal 400% cap? (Of course, that seems like it would be fairly difficult to code)

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I'm wondering why people are fixated on the cap. I want more BASE damage.

Unless you're fully slotted with Hami-Os, or waiting to use Build Up and Aim with every attack (and those two buffs don't last nearly long enough), the cap isn't really the issue.

Once you hit around 30, your base damage doesn't go up proportionately with MOB hit points. AOEs become less effective (with the same amount of aggro) and it takes far more work to bring down a boss.

The Damage Cap enters into none of that.

Take a typical power.

Typical slotting is 1 ACC 5 DAM SOs.

That brings you to about 266%. Combo that with Build Up and Aim, and I believe you're slightly over the 400%. (Raising the Cap to 500% would help in this case, but not a lot.)

Now 6-slot a power with Acc/Dam Hami-Os.

That brings you exactly to 400%. The result? You need to buffs to max out your damage.

A few of the scrapper sets have access to Build Up (but not Aim). Without Hami-Os, Build Up alone doesn't get them to the 400% mark. (And as someone who also plays scrappers, I've been ignoring Build Up in my builds...it's a pain to have to activate when the sword can just keep whirling around with other attacks.)

So, what does this mean? The solo scrapper, without Hami-Os can't reach the 400% cap, much less 500%. They need outside help to do so.

However, this makes scrappers far more wanted or needed in a group situation. I can attest that my scrappers do more damage over time than my blaster builds can. Heck, my katana scrapper can out AOE numerous blasters. On top of that, the scrappers don't kiss pavement at the drop of a hat. This adds to the damage over time. The scrapper stays upright while the blaster does not.

As a blaster, I don't mind having minimal defenses -- there's a surgical precision you need to use in missions, i.e. you can't just run in without a plan. But give the blaster higher damage at higher levels to make up for the complete lack of defense. Help the blaster out a bit on the range side (apart from the sniper shot, the most damaging attacks shouldn't happen within 10ft of a MOB or closer). If we're truly "ranged damage" then give us some range.

As a last note: I like the level 32 "Nuke Strikes" that we have. Those really do make us damage kings, but the cost of using them is high. If you don't kill everything in the blast radius, the blaster is most likely doomed. Electricity actually has an advantage here in that their Nuke Strike is ranged.

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Can I ask why are blasters solid up to say level 20?

What makes their damage good till then but fall apart later?

The cap is in play then as it is later, so it can't be that can it? Or is it that you don't really keep getting better attacks while the scrapper does?

I don't know for real but could better later attacks be the problem. Hack is much weaker then headsplitter. But you get snipe one of your best damage attacks very early. Maybe what's needed besides mezz defense is better late attacks.

I don't know just asking.

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It's not totally the attacks we have, it's the enemies. Status attacks, greater range on the baddies, Status attacks at range, more damaging attacks...all of these combine to make our range and damage nearly moot. Then you add in insults like /fire's lvl 38 power....hot feet.

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Couple this with the hit points that bosses have in the late game. That snipe attack that can one shot minions? Forget about it as it barely dents a boss. (And don't even begin to think that boss is going to let you get another snipe off -- no way.)

Rikti bosses do colossal damage at range AND mez or stun. Carnies? Blasters are going to get chewed up by the Carnie bosses (heck my SCRAPPER gets chewed up by Carnie bosses). Blasters are going to get hosed by the Nemesis Lieutenants who have a much larger range than blasters do. I won't mention sappers because everyone hates those guys

As a blaster, hitting level 20 is pretty easy. There's a minimum of status effects that get thrown at you (Tsoo Ink Men, primarily) and the mob hit points don't get too out of control.

After 20 though you start wandering into Devouring Earth, Banished Pantheon (Storm Shamans SUCK!), more Tsoo, CoT mages that cause issues, Lost mind controllers, and Family Consiglieres (rarely). And let's not talk about the Freakshow tanks that can pound you flat in one or two shots.

That's the problem with blasters after 20.

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Aggro needs to be less when firing from range.


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Quoting this for emphasis. Paired up with an equal level scrapper with my level 26ish blaster to fight some Banished Pantheon.

Scrapper would rush in to gather aggro. I'd wait for the mobs to see him. Then I'd fire off a snipe and begin my assault.

As soon as the snipe landed, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE MOBS turned on me and fired off ranged attacks. Dead blaster. This included MOBs that were farther away from me than the scrapper was. It seemed like everything in the room saw this snipe take out one of their buddies and immediately decided to attack (never minding that there was a scrapper AOEing the bejeezus out of them).

I get back and we go for the next mob. This time I decided to wait longer. Same result.

Get back from the hospital again and I wait 10 seconds before engaging. Same result (only this time I was able to run and managed to live).

The result?

As a blaster I won't group unless there's a tanker or controller present. And even then I've found myself being picky.

It's funny that the theoretical "City of Blasters" never manifested. It's funny that blasters who were supposedly the "best" AT when the game first launched get their butts handed to them when they up the difficulty past Heroic, while every other AT seems to have no problems moving the slider up. (And I play all 5 ATs.)

Don't get me wrong. I love blasters. I love the Blaster Melee attacks. But they definitely need some love at the later levels.

I agree that more variety is always good. One thing to keep in mind is that for each unique art piece in each of the hundreds of missions in the game is, well, it takes time to create those art pieces.

I know mission uniqueness is something they're working on. I recently redid the Vahzilok Disease story arc and the final mission for that was insanely cool. Tyrant's new digs are very cool. The "Find the Geology Students" mission against the Pantheon is insanely cool. The Pwnz Badge mission got a new tileset at some point. And Lou's Garage got a makeover.

And if you want some more unique missions, get an alt up to 20 and check out Striga Isle. The vampire creating machines towards the end are a load of fun.

Since we can't boot Leaders out, some mechanism that drops characters from a SG after, say, 60 days. Or just someway to get rid of Leaders who have left for other games and didn't have the courtesy to remove their characters from the SG. (Others have mentioned this problem, and currently my SG has about 10 "Leaders" who have not logged in for about 70 days, and another who's been gone for 150.)

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Okay, so a friend of mine has no official travel power. He has Swift, Sprint, Quickness, and Elude (spelling). I have no idea how he has them slotted but he is faster than my 42 flyer and I have 6 slots full of max SO speeds (yes i know it caps out at 4. consider the other 2 saftey systems incase one fails...)

now i've always been content with flights speed. sure i would like it to be faster, but i didn't have anything against it.

but this just makes it so worthless now. someone without a travel power can move faster than me and i am as fast as i can go.. i'm not demanding something be done, i just want to bring it up. i want to make sure the devs know that we can be slower than someone without a travel power..

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Ask your friend to race you across Faultine, Eden, or Boomtown. Or to the back of the cemetery in Dark Astoria. See who wins.

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I sneaked across the Rikti Crash Site with a first level character, and I'd say that it is sometimes of comparable difficulty because Rikti teleport in - and groups of villains just spawn around you in the Hollows - and take you out before you can get away.


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Anyone else want to call Shenanigans on this?

I mean, you must be totally UBER to get through Crey's Folley with a level 1 character (min level =30) just to GET to the Crash Site. I am in total AWE of your skills.

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Awwww.... poor widdle muffin. Did the Howwows Huwt You?

Get a grip. The mission placement should be a challenge. Do you just want every contact to hand you a door mission, that happens to be a block away, that happens to have REALLY easy foes to kill, which gives you enough exp to get 10 levels per mission?

People will complain about the stupidest things. Sure, I've had alts that have died in the Hollows... but my stupidity is to blame. I decide to shortcut through the red zone, and get my [censored] handed to me... lesson learned.

Any time I've had a difficult-to-reach mission, I've merely taken my time, and taken safe routes... and I've never had a problem that way.

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Um, I don't think you've ever had an under 10 character with a mission in the back of the Hollows. There ARE no safe routes. The zone is huge and because of this you can run into enemies you can't even see until you're right on them. It takes one volley of a gang of level 14s or 15s to kill you.

I don't think anyone expects anything to be handed to them on a silver platter. I don't think anyone doesn't want a challenge. But there is a HUGE difference between challenge and suicidal. Right now I have a level 8 scrapper with 3 missions I have no chance of reaching (a group of level 8-10s is going to get chewed up getting to these areas). I'm better off just starting over once these changes go through. Or, maybe I should just grind until I hit 13? No thanks.