FrostyBot

Problem is, Positron's a Rad/Rad Defender.

Just be happy he doesn't use all those dropped heroes for Fallout. BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

For the record- thanks, Manticore the dev and boxwood6177(note, this supercedes earlier listings of these hero's powers):

Positron is a Rad/Rad Defender.
Manticore is a Trick Arrow Archery Defender.
Sister Psyche is a Mind Control/FF Controller.

and just to fill in the other ones noted by many:

Miss Liberty is a MA/Inv Scrapper.
Mynx is a Claws/Regen Scrapper.
Luminary is an Energy/Energy Blaster.
Swan is a Kin/Psi Defender.
Synapse is an Elec/Elec Blaster (with SS).
Citadel (ex Bastion) is an Inv/EM Tank.
Numina is a Mind/Empathy Controller.
Valkyrie is a Spear(!)/Regen Scrapper.
Infernal is a Fire/Axe Tank.
Back Alley Brawler is an Inv/SS Tank.
And the now-AWOL Malaise was/is an Ill/Kin Controller.

Y'know, it'd be nice if they DID aggro on things- but I think they don't because someone could in theory train Positron through the town, whacking everything in sight.

Though a L50 is going to vaporize most SC spawns on contact. Maybe if they have some sort of ranged attacks (even Scrappers/Controllers get decent ones) they can use to mangle things in range? I'd train stuff to Manticore just to see him use that bow before I5. :P

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Sign me up for sharky-goodness. :-)

Oh the "scales" on a shark are actually more like small teeth, and they are called denticles. Pet a shark one way and they are smooth, the other and you might lose a layer of skin. :-)

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I'll remember that the next time I pet a shark...

/note to self/

Only pet a shark in one direction...

and make sure my will is up to date...

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I've petted sharks before. Long as you're careful (or wearing a glove,chainmail in my case), they're actually pretty neat to touch. Heck, it's not like all sharks are carnivores or going to be able to bite you anyhow.

Ack...I haven't gotten that one! (Curse my 2-day account outage if it screwed me outta something. :P)

Someone got a pic of the pic?

The best situation for a Blaster is control. Total control.

Teams degrade your ability to control a situation. Don't be afraid to cut yourself a piece of the action, remove it as a threat, and then return to the main battle.

Remember a wound causes less aggro than a status effect, which causes less aggro than a shot that drops it's target.

Remember that a boss causes more of a ruckus than a Lt, who causes more attention to be aimed at you than a minion does.

In teams, hunt minions. Be wary of Lt's. Save Bosses for last. The fewer bad guys there are, the better your odds of living through the encounter. If in trouble, you have the lowest odds of survival. Know where the exit is at all times, and use it if you ever feel a lack of control. Dump every defense/heal inspiration you have into protecting yourself and get moving.

It's a shorter trip and a less painful one than a hospital visit, and KO'ed Blasters provide no help to a team.

You are a Blaster. Your job in a group is to deliver firepower prejudically, not indiscriminately. Concentrate on the weak, slice them from the herds, and bring them down. The strongest are best controlled until they no longer have minion or Lt. support troops. Ignore them unless they're a direct threat or the only threat remaining. That's what Tanks and Scrappers are for.

You work better as a lone wolf or with other Blaster-wolves. Fight like one, even in a group. The only difference is that given a choice, pick targets that will assist other members of the team. Drop the ones attacking past the Tank/Scrappers. If you have to make the choice of saving the defense or the support- save the defense. They make better distractions if things go to hell.

Cold-blooded? Yes. But you'll suffer less pain and debt that way.

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Whadya' mean 'no cool handle'! I've posted here before

I'm the other programmer going to E3. See you all there!

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Hah! He's named after a Khan.

Of course he's cool.

Actually, it'd be sorta amusing if we critted in reverse to scrappers.

Vs. Minions we have our best chance for crits, vs. Bosses our worst.

But I have very little problem with -Res attacks. If we're being hit, we're dead either way. I expect we'll see new mobs with I5 that use Sonics to do just that in any case. I have no serious defenses, and for a Blaster, the real "defense" we have is offense. So defense-eroding attacks don't bother me much compared to what's happening now, and it DOES make a difference with Tanks/Scrappers, who aren't getting the same thrills and chills from opponents.

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Don't mean to sound really stupid, but I have an Ice blaster and all three of my Single target attacks are 5 damage 1acc SOs and fighting +3's i average 90% hit rates. what are you fighting that you can only hit once out of 5 attacks?

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He's got SS or SJ running, which right now is eating 50% of his accuracy. Hover blaster like me has no problem hitting as normal, though I get the usual occasional odd streak (pausing just a second seems to break the miss streaks, though).

Postie go *fudd*?

Yes, it was Altered Beast.

No offense, but I'm of the opinion that sucking chest wounds are nature's way of telling you to slow down. Or at least to stop doing something.

That's what exemplaring is for- rapid debt removal. I mean heck, I play as squishy as any could be (Blaster) and I don't blow a gasket when I pile up debt. I go find a lower level bunch like a respec team or TF, exemplar down and clean up the debt. Heck, I'm saving Positron for the late 40's or so...where I figure I can get a really bad streak and clean it out. :P

Oddly enough, I'd say our larger-area-effect blasts actually end up being MORE of a danger to us.

If a Scrapper wings six mobs with his PBAoE, good and well.

If I rake six mobs with Frost Breath (barring a nicely packed group around a tank, a good shot), in the average combat every single one of those mobs can faceplant me inside 3 hits.

Six mobs. Three hits. No real defenses, other than outright killing them. Oops. If it's a well packed group, I can hit far more. Pray I don't get their attention doing so. Oddly enough, dropping a few and wounding the others tend to get the others to pay MUCH more attention to me...

Ask any Blaster how many bad words he uses seeing a group only wounded by your best shot- and returning fire.

Oh, you cursed reanimator! You got my hopes up.

Ah well, I got issue #12 of the CoH comic today. Good enough for me. Cause it was good enough, and now Top Cow's is next on it's way.

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The concept of a Numa Numa Dance TF scars the mind.

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This link is completely safe.

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Rated CH for Chibi Action!

I don't mind the song. The concept of hearing it for the amount of time you'd do, say Positron's TF...well, it's time for a little brain picking with the hot poker.

And now, damn you the concept of Numina doing the Numa Numa dance will not leave my mind's eye. Someone please do the movie before I suffer permament damage.

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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 actually use the AR Snipe....

...as a finishing move for my AR/ENG Blapper at next-to-no range. And it'll come out once I get Flamethrower/FA.

I'd love to see snipe shots actually get the "targeting scope view" of the battlefield from first-person...and actually require it due to the range.

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However, I do believe that if Blaster secondaries were made more useful, then Blasters would be on par with Scrappers and Tankers. Then on to Defenders and Controller. I still can't decide if Controllers are over or under powered though.

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The answer is 32. Pre-32, they're underpowered (especially at the earliest levels. Post-32, they're the bomb. Pets make all the difference. If it was EQ, it'd be like necromancers not getting their skellie friend till 40th or so. They'd have some neat tricks, but having a summonable "meatshield" is seven flavors of awesome goodness.

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If we're going to change something, for the love of GOD do not change it for just snipes.

I absolutely hate snipes. HATE. HATE WITH ALL THE MIGHT I CAN MUSTER IN MY BODY.

They're worthless powers. Interruptable, mediocre damage for what you have to do.

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If snipes actually had a range advantage, they'd be worth using. As it stands, they're good for getting your butt whipped at a longer range than usual. Nothing like rocks and barf outranging a sniper rifle.

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IMHO, keep power Thrust and Bonesmasher, kill off the other three and give more support powers. If you must keep another melee then keep Stun. Energy Punch doesn't do enough, with stun you get a better chance to disorient and therefore survival is improved.

I know I'll catch alot of flack for saying to off Total Focus. This is a great power, but I feel that the final power in a support powerset should be th ultimate in support not the ultimate in melee.

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Whatever dude. Just because you dont think it should be there doesnt mean it shouldn't. Its the crown jewel of the Energy Secondary.

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The concept of eliminating the only Boss-class stopper shot in the entire AT, not to mention arguably one of the best single-target attacks in the game...errrr no. Energy Punch and Stun are much higher in the ranks for a toss-out than TF, the punch that hits like a nuke.

Heph's done the time on Fire/Fire. Give the man some respect. Even if he's crotchety in his age. :P

Seriously- at what level are you laying in melee chains with your Fire/Fire blaster? If I was killing in a crowd with that many attacks in a row, I'd expect to getting pounded if not flattened somewhere in the middle of it.

Bo Bindel needs to be in the comic book Paragon Times section. Preferably with someone who can illust...ill....DRAW GOOD!

(OK, no more Dyne before bedtime for me.)

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=^_^=

Even though I recently did the Numa Numa TF ( ), I really don't know much about the Woodsman, other than what the DE did to him, and his present condition.

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The concept of a Numa Numa Dance TF scars the mind. For mercy's sake, do not speak of it again, much like the twisted demented imaginings people have of sequels to Highlander.

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I honestly don't know why it isn't:

Controller: Control/Buff
Defender: Buff/Ranged
Blaster: Ranged/Control

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Because ranged/control is flipping overpowered.

At the moment its ranged/utility, with some sets being utilized better.

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Ranged control is overpowered?

Geez, no wonder Ice is FOTM. We got that. No wonder a big APP power choice is a ranged Hold.

Blasters crave status. Disorients, Holds. Beanbag (with Taser) has become a fantastic power choice for AR/DEV. Ice gets a good bonus to it's survival time with Freeze Ray, and actually a chance when it can stack Bitter Freeze Ray/Freeze Ray. Many Blasters swear by Bonecrusher/Total Focus, the latter especially...for it's status and that's not even ranged!

So yes. Ranged + Control/Melee in the secondaries. If I'm to be fragile, let me hit like the glass cannon I'm supposed to be. One shot stops, the second shot kills.

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Defenders are not fine. They simply gave up as a community after continuously being ignored in threads far longer and larger than any other community spawned that eventually got them the developers special attention.

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Funny, sounds like Blasters, the "long unpaid attention". Oh wait, that's what we're supposedly posting here about.

Don't even give me word one about Defenders not getting any love. Defenders have problem powersets. Blasters have AT-wide problems. I play a Dark/Eng Defender as an alt. We have NO problems as Defenders that compare with Blasters as a whole.

You want to talk about Empathy/FF needing more solo love, sure. You want to talk about Storm needing PvE work, sure. But don't give me word one about Defenders being ignored. Heck, I'm having trouble figuring which GOOD powers to fit into Dark Miasma, the more so with Tar Patch changing on Test.

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Does this mean you are making a new baseline? Last I checked the base line was three white minions. Is this changeing?

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That was clarified in the now-locked Regen thread.

One hero = three white minions isn't a baseline- though Statesman said it should be fun. It's more like they want one hero = 3 +3 minions to be challenging...but I have a feeling that isn't a baseline either. AT's are going to be inherently unequal somewhere along the line...but to me that's just a problem with the way PvE deals with defense powers in the first place.

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But many issues have come up - most notably, the perception that Blasters are too fragile at levels 35+. Their damage potential does not compensate for their low hit points.

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Mostly, that's from the rapid increase in status-effect mobs from the mid-30's or so, combined with only pool-level status resistance. Plus, we tend to be outranged even by the weakest ranged attacks in that range, meaning hit-and-run tactics are useless. Grey con Crey Protectors can be a serious threat simply because of those frickin' sleep shots (never mind Rikti, or Carnies, or...).

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And, of course, there's the complaint that some Secondaries have too many melee attacks - something that the Blaster avoids at all costs.

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Not -all- melee attacks...but most preferred melee-range attacks are the ones with a good chance of rendering a return strike moot. Energy Punch, Charged Melee, etc...good ways to teach newbie blasters where NOT to go. We're happy with stuff like Bonesmasher/TF, Havoc Punch, etc. They pack a solid hit, which for a fragile AT like ours is the only one we can afford. Don't eliminate melee from the secondaries, but seriously consider changing how and what kind they are in light of our hit-and-run tactics. We're Better Blaster Blastards that way. Use the space from removing those weaker secondaries to help fill in gaps that show up in testing.

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At the moment, Scrappers, and to a lesser degree, Tankers, are being analyzed. Once we establish a baseline, then we'll be in a better position to look at Blasters.

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Looking forward to seeing baseline data and demos and hopefully helping out with the feedback.