Eva Destruction

It was put in the last patch, but missed the patch notes. Some people were understandably upset about this. I was not aware the scaling had been changed until I read two posts from people who had used Adamastor in a non-exploitative way (scaled down to the 20s or 30s, where he can still be a threat).

Simply disallowing high-level AVs to be scaled down to ANY level, even at a point where they are still a threat, is again a ham-fisted overly harsh fix that again unfairly punishes legitimate arcs. The problem was with people farming Adamastor at level 1, because he is wimpy for an AV, and because AVs in general don't scale well to level 1.

EBs give the same XP as a boss, don't they? So what would be the point in farming them? Flagging scaled-down AVs to always be EBs seems like a good solution to me. Or, just prevent them from scaling down into the extreme low end. Set a minimum level to which AVs are allowed to scale down, one where their damage and regen/HP is comparable to a standard AV of that level, and don't allow them to go any lower. There are no dev-created AVs below level 10, why should there be in AE? Or, fix how they scale, so when a team of level 5s walks into their Adamastor farm they get footstomped into oblivion.

Yes, I am referring exactly to being softcapped to all positions. For some reason my /SR Scrapper is always the one who ends up on teams with Colds. I don't tell them not to buff me because I realize that for some people remembering who to skip is a pain, but I do not need the shields in that case, and I wish I could just dismiss them.

The existence of incompetent aggro-magnets is the reason why Blasters are infamous for dying all the time. The Blapper playstyle requires a basic knowledge of game mechanics, which the "I'ma gonna open with Fireball, hey watch this....HEAL MEHsssssssssss" *splat* crowd seems to lack.

Other people have already given a myriad of reasons why your second statement is wrong.

Most limited? I would have to argue the opposite; it's the second-most useful Blaster T9 power. I can use it whenever. I can get the recharge down to where it's available every spawn. If I miss a guy, I can immediately shoot him with my other powers without worrying about having blues handy. I don't have to jump into the middle of a spawn to use it.

If you think of it as a nuke, then yeah, it sucks. It isn't a nuke. Just because all the other Blaster sets get nukes for their tier 9 doesn't make Full Auto and Rain of Arrows nukes. Treating it like one is like expecting Rise of the Phoenix to save your skin. It breaks the pattern of the AT, and should be treated accordingly.

The only thing that Full Auto needs is a 16-target cap. Nukes break the PBAoE target cap rules, why can't Full Auto break the cone rules as well? I wouldn't mind Flamethrower getting a 16-target cap as well, just to buff the set as a whole a little more.

Well Frel you too. See, I can fake swear too!

(Actually I agree with you, this thread just made me want to fake swear at somebody and you started it.)

Can I get rid of the hideous and distracting and sometimes useless Cold shields? Please?

This actually seems like the best solution to all the buff whining.

I'm running at the Sociopathy cap already, don't waste your buff on me.

And as for why I want the prompt, and especially that frelling rooting animation removed, I tend to team with...well, they're my in-game friends, and they're nice people, but sometimes they just do. not. get. simple gameplay concepts like "I'm actually paying attention to the fight to keep your Mystic Fortuning butt alive, so SAVE YOUR LAME BUFF AND DO SOMETHING USEFUL."

A better conversion ratio would make an awesome inf sink, and here's why:

IT'S OPTIONAL.

If you want a big fancy base NAO you can spend a bunch of inf, but if you're willing to start small and build up as you can afford it, there's still the old-fashioned way.

Cloak of Darkness.

That is all.

And as for actually contributing something ON TOPIC, Granite and Rooted ensure I will never play Stone Armor. Oh sure, it can be played without Granite, and you can make it look kinda cool with power customization, but Rooted is soooooo slooooooow. And you can't jump.

Ice Shields too. I despise the look, even if they're customized to be as unobtrusive as possible. If we had the option to decline buffs, the Cold shields are the only ones I would decline. I actually find them distracting.

I would add fear as well, since many melee sets don't have protection against it. Those powers can last quite a while.
Most AVs have a PBAoE, and forcing squishier teammates to avoid it is part of the challenge. Giving them too many AoEs however is bad.

Phalanx Fighting gets buffed by teammates. At least for players it does, not sure how it works for critters. However, you might want to avoid Invincibility, and you definitely want to avoid Rise to the Challenge.

If you're going to use ambushes, have them say something, so players have a warning. Consider having the AV say something when he summons the ambush as well. Nothing worse than whittling a tough AV down to 1/4 HP and getting wiped by the ambush. By the time everybody gets back from the hospital...guess what, he's at full health again.

Ok I get it now. You have a small SG and want a big SG's base.

Small SGs are supposed to have--get this--small bases. That's why we got all kinds of starter items and stuff, so you could have something. Big bases are for big SGs.

And I don't care if it's 30 million or 1 million, it's my inf and I'm spending it on me. The current system allows me, and everyone else, to contribute to the group without giving up a dime.

I don't recall you specifically mentioning anything about Ignite, but I do recall the sudden turnaround in opinion on the power a few years back. One of the happiest moments of my AR teaming career was the day I discovered that Taunt overrides the avoid effect.

Then came the sad day the Devs realized that too and increased the recharge.

Scourge.......scourge.....scourge..scourge scourge scourge scourge.

Isn't it AWESOME?

That may be the problem. Blasters are NOT a safe AT to solo, ever.* They aren't particularly safe on teams either, unless you can rely on your teammates to be on the ball, all the time. If you don't like the high-risk playstyle, the AT might not be for you.

Incidentally, after playing Blasters so much my first Scrapper to 50 was /regen (if I misclick I die) and then I had a stupid amount of fun with /SR (if the RNG gods aren't appeased by my sacrifice of a billion zillion Rikti I die).

*With the possible exception of Sonic/Energy. Seriously, Siren's Song is practically cheating. At that point you're soloing like a Dom who kills faster.

Once again Arcanaville saves me from having to actually look stuff up.

Jack talked about a lot of things that are no longer true, and some things that never were. Those Nemesis snipers who nailed me from across the map agree with him though. Range is a defense....for them.

I think a lot of the old "Blasters should stay out of melee range" mentality was a holdover form the days of "City of Smoke Grenades." Somewhere around i5 or i6 the Blapper mentality started becoming more prominent. We got better at playing Blasters, we got to know what they could do, we got more survivability to go with it, and more people started getting addicted to the high-risk, high-reward melee Blaster playstyle.

One of my favorite forum quotes of all time came from the early days of the Blapper era, it went something like this: "Any fool can rush into battle wearing full plate armor. It takes a special kind of fool to rush in wearing only gasoline-soaked tissue paper for protection. I am that fool."
Slow melee attacks on Blasters is why kiting was invented.

The old Tenacious and Unyielding difficulty settings were rather wonky for a while there, but I'm finding that now on +0/x4 and +0/x6 I'm getting mostly large groups of minions with a few lieutenants thrown in, and an occasional boss.

We can all agree that AR's single-target damage sucks, no?

The proper response to this is: "You play your way, I'll play mine. The new difficulty settings were designed to accommodate my playstyle as well as yours, so STFU."

Trip Mine is up every spawn, you run in, you set it, it asplodes, you time your AoE right and hit them all before they go flying, lots of dead stuff, profit.

Or it could be a great aggro magnet that will get you killed. I've seen it happen often enough to not take the power, and with Elec/Elec it's not like you're short on attacks.

You should. Love the Blaster, the Blaster is your friend.

You were talking about the high end cost of Shocking Grasp or something. Which comes in a set with Power Sink, which is awesome.

Health can be mitigated with inspirations and pool powers. You can't slot for "hurt me less." You can take the APP shields, which will help, you can get IOs for defense, but the only thing you can do once you are actually hurt is pop a green, or use Aid Self. You can use IOs to get +regen but on a Blaster that mostly serves to reduce downtime. Whereas you can slot to use less end, or recover it faster.
Thunderstrike has a low chance for AoE knockback now?

AoEs are balanced around three enemies, so you still get good use out of them on Tenacious, and increasing the number of enemies just increases incoming damage even if they are a level lower. You'd probably be better off going back to Tenacious. I found Rugged was often easier than Tenacious, even with my AoE Blasters, since the incoming damage was less.

I mostly use them to toe-bomb for giggles, or for EBs. If it's an EB, all the time in the world is worth watching them asplode My /dev also has Hasten, Trip mines slotted up for recharge and decent global recharge bonuses though (as did my /traps before her, who taught me the sweetness of watching EBs asplode), so I can get more mines down faster.

On a team they are completely useless and relying on them would be super slow, but dammit, they are FUN sometimes.

Ok, I'll admit I don't really factor in end costs when I'm playing a set that has an auto-hit end recovery power with a fast recharge. Powers that fire off fast = me not dead. Powers that fire off slowly but don't cost as much end = me dead with a full blue bar. End costs can be mitigated with inspirations, IOs, SO slotting, and recovery powers. Activation times are set.

Fire Sword Circle is also an AoE, which Fire Sword is not. Hence, why I compared it to another AoE.
Ok I get it. If you don't use it as mitigation it isn't mitigation.

I hereby propose we stop treating all the Blaster immobilizes as mitigation. After all, I don't use most of them as mitigation after level 20 or so, therefore they don't count as mitigation.
Then WHY THE HELL are you facing spawns of 8 minions and 2 lieutenants? Just because you CAN crank up your difficulty doesn't mean you HAVE TO.

Yeah, and I can tank Malta on +4x8 on my Scrapper. Therefore all Scrappers must be able to do so, even those with SOs and concept builds.

Oh, did I mention that I spent a lot of inf to get that Scrapper to that point? Yeah, I'm sure a lot of those Controllers and Defenders forget to mention that too. Just like those Blasters who make those videos.

Well, they do get higher base damage, and Defiance, and....um....ok you got me. /Traps just served to show those who still doubted how much /Dev needs a buff. If it wasn't for those sweet, sweet Tripmines...oh sweet little Tripmines, how I love thee....I would have dropped the set long ago. Now I have one at 50 though, so I can join the chorus: BUFF /DEVICES!

Clues are good. Anything else can be easily missed in the middle of a fight, especially detail completion text, which only shows up for the person who actually completes the detail, if a team is running the mission.

Go run a Malta mission with a low level petless MM and tell me how you do.

Your arc needs to be exactly as long as it needs to be. If you need five missions, you need five missions. If you CAN do it in three, you should do it in three.

Things to avoid:

• Missions that are essentially repeats of previous missions. In Dev-created content the bad guys split all their important information up into three separate warehouses. AE bad guys are lazy, and keep all the important information in one warehouse.
  
• Glorified paper missions. Defeating a single boss or grabbing a single blinky doesn't merit its own mission. AE bad guys are lazy, remember? They are also social animals, and the bosses hang out in the same warehouse even if they hate each other.
  
• Insanely convoluted plots. You have five missions tops. You are not going to be able to recreate World Wide Red in all its convolutedness in five missions. You might be able to get all the basics in, but some of the intricacies of such a convoluted plot would be lost. AE bad guys aren't that good at multitasking either. Keep your plot reasonably simple. If you can't describe the plot in a single sentence, it's probably too complicated.
  
• Forced backtracking: Ideally, a player should only have to run through the map once. If you're using chained objectives, choose a linear map, and remember that the "middle" area is often most of the map. If you stick to Front > Middle > Back chains there is still a chance the player might miss something and have to backtrack, but the chance is much less than if you have three "middle" objectives chaining off each other. If you must force the player to backtrack, add new objectives chaining off the event that forces the backtrack, to make the trip back interesting, for example, patrols and bosses that only spawn after the escortee is rescued and that the player encounters while leading them out.
  
• Wall of Text: Where possible, split up information between contact dialogue and in-mission clues. If a large amount of information must be conveyed at once, paragraphs are your friends.
  
• "But I Really Like This:" Boss, map, enemy group, mission, NPC, whatever. If you really like it but it doesn't add to the story, cut it.

You're not constantly using up endurance running another toggle. That makes it worth remembering to click to me.

How does one abuse inspirations, exactly? They drop so you can use them. Careful management of inspirations =/= abuse.

One-second activation and a hold that can stack with holds from your primary and your APP make the stupid-long DoT worth it.

You fire off a power, it roots you, the enemy takes a step forward and melees you. Might as well be melee range.

It is still a PBAoE, regardless of how you, personally use it.

Didn't you just say World of Confusion wasn't melee range? Now I'm confused.

Ok, so Mental Manipulation has a bunch of powers that do damage but they don't count as powers that do damage? Must be that World of Confusion aura going off again, because now I'm very confused.

According to Mids, Shocking Grasp does 100 damage for a 1-second cast time, while Total Focus does 198 for a 3.3 second cast time. Please explain to me your definition of "efficient."

Fire Sword Circle: 99.5 damage. Fire Breath: 109.8 damage. Both have the same cast time, and Fire Sword Circle's damage is mostly upfront rather than the DoT of Fire Breath. I agree with you that Combustion sucks.

Energy Manipulation: Fast-recharging knockback, (cause, you know, some people don't want to be in melee with some enemies), two powers with guaranteed mag 3 stun and two with a chance of stun, and a power that increases the duration of said stuns. And if you still think range = mitigation you have an easily perma-able power that helps you stay there.

Electric Manipulation: Two powers with a chance of sleep, one of which also has a chance of knockback. One power with guaranteed PBAoE knockback and a chance of stun. One power, that you hate so much, with a guaranteed hold. One power with high End drain, which combined with the other powers in the set (including the one you hate so much) can drain a boss in short order.

Ice patch. I've been told Hot Feet is mitigation. World of confusion. Shiver. Thunderstrike. If you're /Electric and you meet a Mentalist, well you should have taken Shocking Grasp, shouldn't you?

Funny, I managed to play Blasters in melee, as did a lot of other people, long before inventions and Defiance 2.0.

I'm fighting Carnies, Malta, Cimerorans, Council, CoT, and Rikti and Nemesis too. I've fought every enemy in the game at some point with a ranged/melee Blaster. On Unyielding or Invincible. Before Inventions. If you're getting "instant-killed" by basic spawns you need to either learn to play or stop exaggerating. I'm guessing it's the latter.

If you're putting yourself in a position to be hit with 10 simultaneous Power Bursts, then you really need to go home and think long and hard about how not to be in that position. And if you HONESTLY think you could survive that if you were playing a Defender or Controller, then maybe you should go home and think long and hard that maybe the Blaster AT just isn't for you.

So I betray him, beat him up...a few more levels go by and I get even more powerful, I call him again...

"Fear Me."

Um, no?

Rikti Chief Mentalists do too. If you approach to melee they might pull their swords, like they always have, but otherwise they're perfectly content to stand back and spam Dominate at you.