Fury Flechette

tl;dr version:
1. PvP needs a revamp that allows it to take place in the context of the PvE game
2. PvP should be much more objective based, so it appeals to players that are primarily PvE
3. PvP rewards should be given to accomplishing objectives and not for killing opposition players

I've stepped into the post issue 12 PvP setting about four times since it was introduced. Without elaborating on the many reasons why I dislike it, let me just say that having a dominator attack me with flurry was both amusing and appalling at the same time.

I've seen a number of threads talking on how to change the mechanics of PvP, and while some of them make a lot of sense, I think the authors miss the reason why PvP remains so unpopular in this game. The focus shouldn't just be on the mechanics but why PvP is so isolated and divorced from the rest of the game.

PvP right now takes place in the Arena and in PvP zones. The Arena was the devs first implementation of PvP and it shows: limited options, really just one objective (kill the other side as much as possible) and no system that allows people to join matches already in place. One of the biggest problems of the arena is that in order to use it, you had get someone to fight you first.

PvP zones don't have that issue. It operates on the premise that you fight all comers from the other side, and yet it too has numerous problems. First, PvP zones really just don't fit thematically in this game. They make perfect sense in a game like World of Warcraft where you have two competing armies and territory that changes hands. PvP zones in this game don't make sense if you believe that the game world operates on similar standards of diplomacy and territorial sovereignty as the real world. Second, while there are mini games in PvP zones, they are mostly ignored for just killing other players or diverted to primarily PvE purposes (Shivans, nukes for PvE missions). Third, the PvP zones seem like a poorly tacked on feature of the "real" game as opposed to a seemless integration of the two worlds.

Let me elaborate on this last point a bit. When I first heard of PvP being announced in issue 4, I thought the devs would eventually figure out a way to seemlessly integrate PvP in the context of the PvE game. PvP should sometimes just happen as opposed of having to just look for it.

Here's a few scenarios I thought of with this concept in mind:

* Hero event broadcast: "Villains are attacking Steel Canyon". Up to 30 villains and 30 heroes can enter an instanced zone of Steel Canyon. The instanced zone takes the first 30 on each side that enter. Villains and heroes are auto sk'ed to level 25. Numerous objectives are on the map: rob the bank/stop the robbery, set/defuse the bombs, kidnap/rescue the hostages, vandalize/prevent vandalization. For every objective won by either side, that side wins PvP merits which can be used to purchase PvP recipes. The amount of PvP merits that can be won scales with the number of opposition participants, and are rewarded for *achieving each objective* and not for killing opposition players. Killing opposing players are a means not an ends.

* Villain event broadcast: "Heroes are assaulting the Fab in Grandville" Up to 30 heroes and 30 villains can enter an instanced zone of the Fab. Heroes and villains are auto sk'ed to level 50. Numerous objectives: defend/destroy the Fab power generator, release Longbow captives/prevent their rescue, download information from the Fab mainframe/prevent computer access. Just like the other scenario, every objective won by either side wins that side PvP merits.

* Parallel missions: Have a number of missions with an "Allow PvP combat" option. When this option is toggled, it allows any opposition faction player to enter that mission as a PvP opponent to stop that player from completing the mission. The goal for the protagonist will be accomplishing the mission, the goal for the antagonist will be to stop the protagonist anyway possible, including killing them. A few rules that would need to be added: missions will be timed at 15 minutes. Every time a player is killed, they receive an cumulative buff that makes them slightly harder to kill (+5% damage, +5% defense to all, etc.) This would ensure that even an outmatched player will eventually be on par. Both parties would have a certain number of gladiator based allies that they could deploy at certain points of the map to help them strategically. Once set, they behave as NPCs of the appropriate level. PvP merits would be awarded when either the protagonist achieves the objective or when time runs out.

So why would the above be more advantageous than the current implementation? Well, first I think it would be more popular for PvE players. With the emphasis on achieving the objectives versus just killing players for the sake of killing them, I think it would have more appeal. I also think that many PvE based builds would be more successful in getting objectives done and they would feel less obligated to spec into a build built solely to kill oppsition players. Second, such missions fit in the context of the PvE game. PvP would just happen as opposed of just having it occur in isolated parts of the game. Third, such a system allows for more role play opportunities, since it may allow for the advent of a arch nemesis type system. Appealing to PvE'ers and role players to a new PvP are IMO an important goal to any sort of revamp.

TT does more damage but it's over a longer period of time. It used to annoy me to no end that the damage over time was so slow. Nightfall does negative energy damage and hence is less resisted, but it looks like it does roughly half the damage of TT to make up for it, though it does the damage in roughly a third of the time.

Both have 20 second recharges. Both have really narrow cones.

I think you pay too much to get the tohit debuff and the less resisted damage type. If you're into damage as your criteria, you'd probably want TT (though admittedly, the damage over 7 seconds stinks since the target will probably be dead long before the full damage is realized...at least for minions/Lts).

There are already fire/mm and archery/mm farming builds. However, they're not fire/kins.

The health/end recovery isn't anywhere close to what you can get with transfusion/transference. Drain psyche allows you to regen it back, but it's not the insta-burst of health or end that you can get with kin powers.

Psychic shockwave is great, but it's not flashfire in terms of leaving a bunch of things stunned. Further, fire cages is not only significant damage over time but keeps things nicely bunched together...something a fire/mm or arch/mm can't do.

I don't think a top end fire/mm or arch/mm can match a top end fire/kin. I'd love to be proven wrong, but I haven't seen one that can beat even my modestly IO'ed fire/kin.

Snipes should really do more damage or have some beneficial secondary effect (like that of Assassin Strike). Otherwise, like what almost everyone else has mentioned, it's mostly useful for a set mule.

What I hate seeing are mostly newbie players using it to pull. Because of its higher than average damage, it's practically the worst thing for a pull, and will not selectively bring a single enemy but more likely the entire group.

(QR)

I personally think that Freezing Rain *is* a control as well as a debuff. I use it as such all the time. I'd put powers like tar patch, lingering radiation, howling twilight and benumb in the same categories...debuffs that can be used as controls.

I've never played this particular combination, but I have played both sets separately with other primaries/secondaries, so take this advice with a grain of salt.

Electric blast is rather lacking in single target damage. You have charged bolts, lightning bolt but no true tier 3 (blaze, bitter ice blast). This is somewhat similar to AR which has slug, burst and then a choice of AoE powers. What I've done with my AR/Mental is slot out subdual. Subdual is a damage over time but does as much damage as charged bolts. Plus the power charges up fast and is an immobilize. At early levels, subdual, charged bolts and lightning bolt can be pretty much continually chained, with subdual used as a decent filler attack.

Most folks that who the electric primary also use ball lightning and short circuit as utility powers rather than just as attacks. Early on, I'd slot them as normal attacks and then slot them for end drain when you get into IOs or at least SOs. Though admittedly, I've never bothered as slotting them that way...just traditional damage slotting.

Powers which I like from both power sets:

Electric Blast
* Charged Bolts - tier 1 blast, should take it because you can fire it off when mezzed
* Lightning Bolt - tier 2 blast, should take it because you can fire it off when mezzed
* Ball Lightning - long ranged targeted AoE, not the best damage, and endurance expensive. I'd still take it, though don't expect that it will be anything like fire ball.
* Short Circuit - end drain + decent damage PBAoE
* Aim - of course
* Tesla Cage - ranged hold, the only thing I don't like about it is I find the animation slow
* Thunderous Blast - a ranged nuke, which is nice since it doesn't force you to go into the middle of a dangerous spawn

Mental Manipulation
* Subdual - 60' attack/immobilize - should be slotted out with damage
* TK Thrust - a good get away from my face power, point blank knockback. Good to take for ranged builds since it will knockback and force an enemy to ragdoll
* Psychic Scream - a very good cone attack that deals psychic damage. The cone is pretty wide and it also does -50% recharge.
* Concentration - aka build up - of course, you take it
* Drain Psyche - definitely *NOT* the dominator version, but still worth taking. Probably good to use after short circuit.
* Psychic Shockwave - PBAoE damage, stun - I'm looking forward to this power, but admittedly, I haven't gotten high enough on a blaster to try this yet.

I think the rest of the powers are more situational or can be skipped entirely. I'm not a fan of world of confusion for example or scare (unless you can stack it). I'd put voltaic sentinel and zapp in the same category.

In terms of synergies, ball lightning + short circuit + drain psyche should be fun as well as nuking via psychic shockwave and thunderous blast. Early AoE damage can also be had via ball lightning and psychic scream.

It should be a very playable combination.

I haven't had the chance to test this out on Test so take this with a grain of salt. Repulsion bomb is a targeted AoE knockdown that does some damage and has a 40% chance of stunning minions.

The power isn't terrible and it's a decent opener to get stuff on their back and buy you time. The downside of the power is the animation is long and the endurance costs high. It's definitely not something you'd use to save yourself (a la air superiority or force bolt), because you will be killed mid animation.

This is speaking from a defender's point of view on the power. I suspect that the blaster version will have higher damage. No idea if they change the recharge rate (30 seconds for defenders), the magnitude / percentage of the stun or the inherent accuracy (1.2 or 20% more accurate than standard).

As for power choices, sonic blast has a ton of stuff to take, and in my builds I always seem to have me miss taking one. There's really not a bad power in the set (maybe shout in high recharge builds). Mind Probe is okay...a single target melee blap that also has -40% recharge (Psi scream + mind probe = -90% recharge rate).

Some 1 slot power picks:

CJ - works with hover/fly, provides defense and near immunity to immobilize. Great to slot out -kb IOs (Karma, Universal Travel), LoTG recharges.

Stealth - stacks with a stealth IO if you have it to provide invisibility. Also can be slotted with Karma -kb IOs, LoTG recharges.

Superspeed - can be slotted with a stealth IO for close to perfect invisibility. Great option to stealth missions or when flying is too slow. Can take Universal travel sets, including the -kb IO.

Air Superiority - a nice way to put something on their back and ragdoll them. Pretty good with just 1 Acc IO. May be redundant if you already have TK Thrust.

Kick - While this isn't a 1 slot wonder, it's a good way to get budget -kb protection with 4 slots of Kinetic Crash (which is dirt cheap). Alternatively, you could take jump kick, but that has a slower animation. Either way, it would be mostly as a set mule power choice.

Sonic/Rad, Fire/Dark (Sonic/Dark) would be my top 2(3) picks.

Sonic/Rad - you're already familiar with /rad but add in a blast set that brings even more -res and you're packing a lot of power. The primary *will* play quite a bit differently than Rad blast.

Fire/Dark (or Sonic/Dark) - Fire/Dark - all the AoE of fire + tar patch + all the dark controls (AoE stun, heal, fear, tohit debuffs). Go sonic blast if you want more single target but more damage per blast.

I've made it a tradition to get someone to sing 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' in Atlas broadcast for quite some time. I used to offer 1M...quite worth it to see a character named Death God or Uber Thunder Man singing "...whose fleece was white as snow."

But then I realized that people will do it for a lot less, and I dropped the influence amount to 100k, then 50k and the last time I did it, I got someone to do it for 25k.

Moral of the story: people are lazy and would rather beg (or even do something mildly humiliating) than just spend a half and hour to an hour just killing stuff.

It depends a lot on what you're building your fire/kin for. A lot of farming builds have tough/weave to either cap smashing/lethal or because they honestly don't know any better and generally follow the herd.

I personally prefer leadership (maneuvers/tactics) largely because I tend to use my fire/kin for TFs first, farming second. I've teamed with a number of pure farming built fire/kins in the past, and I notice that many of them don't have good accuracy (especially if they fall outside of my leadership buffs and are in any way debuffed), don't have key kinetics powers (increase density, speed boost, siphon speed), and often do pretty poorly in situations where the mobs aren't neatly packed together in a certain city map. This isn't to say, that all of them are bad...some are phenomenal, but those that are have builds that reflect billions of influence of investment. But I digress...

The build looks pretty decent actually. A few issues:

1. All blaster attacks IMO should be maxed for damage. Dead mobs = best mitigation. It's the most irritating thing in the world to see a mob at 1% health firing back at you. Buckshot, LRM and M30 should be maxed for damage first, slotted for secondary effect (KB second). Buckshot in particular is underslotted.

2. One of the reasons why people go AR/Energy is to take advantage of the three cone attacks (Buckshot, Flame thrower, FA) with boost range. Like I said before, don't underslot buckshot for damage. If you need to save slots, you can actually take them from Full Auto. I slot FA for a little accuracy (since it's inherently accurate), full damage and recharge. You don't need to slot it for end redx because the animation is long and you tend to recover a bit naturally before the animation completes. Flame Thrower is the one power where I would recommend a lot of end redx, since it recharges up rather quickly and is expensive.

3. Stun is awful. Since you already have total focus and beanbag to stack stuns, I'd pick something more useful. I'd go with super speed and put in two Blessing of the Zephyrs. In fact, I'd take a slot from somewhere else and put two of those in super jump as well too. Take gives you 6.26% ranged defense with not a lot of slot invested. Plus super speed with a stealth IO is practically invisibility...it will allow you to position your cones rather easily...it will also allow you to ditch stealth if you so desire.

Other than the above somewhat minor quibbles, I think the build will be quite playable. There's a few things I'd disagree with from a personal preference standpoint (I like ignite more than M30 for example), but other than that, it's a decent build.

Energy/Energy is very viable for solo play, all the way to 50.

As for pool choices. Medicine will serve you better than fighting pool. The thing that slows down my blasters a bit is taking damage in between fights. Aid self ensures there's really no downtime between 1 group to the next. It doesn't have to be well slotted and it doesn't really need anything other than just two heal IOs (I don't bother with interrupt since I don't use it during combat). You can slot it with an interrupt as a cheap in-combat heal, but I don't think it's that needed. Green inspirations work better in that situation anyhow.

That's actually not that great of a build for PvP.

Post issue 13 PvP is all about damage spam and pool powers. There's a number of things you can do to improve that build for PvP.

1. Dump fighting, take concealment and get stealth/invisibility and phase shift. Phase shift should be slotted for recharge heavily - it's your only way to avoid things now.

2. Go cold mastery. Take hibern00b. Use the other powers in the APP to slot LoTG recharges.

3. Go super speed and leaping pool for travel. Hover/fly is still laughably bad and one web grenade grounds you. I'm surprised more brutes just didn't buy the web grenade temp powers and get you into melee.

4. Devastation hold procs in your blasts. The way that the new PvP works is that any mez overcomes any kind of mez protection. Considering how fast your blasts can spam these mez procs, the opposition will be constantly mez debuffed. It's honestly considered cheap to slot these, but there's no arguing their effectiveness.

5. Teleport foe doesn't really work unless you're going to grief someone and use it to port someone into the geometry. Anyone ported is intangible so, no port and 1 shot kills. Dump it. Unless you're a griefer, it's useless.

6. Pool powers like air superiority and flurry does more damage than most of your blasts. Sad, but true. I still won't take them, but there's no arguing that they're more effective.

If you want a more general PvE toon, let me know, because the build can be improved for that fairly nicely. The fact that you can win with that build in PvP speaks volumes about the "quality" of current PvP implementation.

Goat,

Since no one posted a build, here's what I put together. I made the following assumptions:

1. Close to the soft cap range as possible. Because Devices doesn't have melee blaps, it's harder to do because you can't take advantage of the 3.75 ranged defense provided by Mako's Bite. You also run out of 3.13 defense bonuses - I hit the rule of 5 on those already. Still, this build has 39.7% ranged defense without cloaking device, probably around 42% with it on (cloak suppresses when you fire so it's roughly worth half of its actual value). Smoke grenade, which is in the build, will get you over the top and with 2 tohit debuff IOs, provide 7% tohit debuff against even cons, 3.3% against +3s. So unless you're fighting +4s, you're essentially capped. Note, no accuracy in smoke grenade (even though the -tohit requires a to hit check) because you have a lot of global accuracy bonus and targeting drone.

2. Avoid mule sets or picking unwanted powers as much as possible. I hate picking powers just to get set bonuses, so I tried to pick powers that I myself would use. The only thing that I made a compromise on is taking cyro freeze ray instead of LRM Rocket - I opted to get more defense from the 6 Lockdown instead of getting LRM and slotting it with Posi Blast for more recharge. As to some other choices:

a) Beanbag / Taser - makes boss fight trivial. Taser has a 20' range now, and with CJ/hurdle/super speed, it's trivial to zip into combat tag the boss and zip out.

b) Gun Drone - before defiance 2.0, you'd be laughed at for taking this power. It does pitiful damage and it's a poor taunt bot. *However* in the post defiance 2.0 world, it's not a laughable choice anymore since it provides you with a sizeable defiance damage bonus, along with contributing damage on its own.

c) Surveillance - really a key power for an AR/Dev blaster, since it provides a free damage boost from the -res. I wanted to put in the Achilles Proc in here but couldn't find a slot unless you wanted to remove one of the LoTG Recharges from the build. I thought having more global recharge offset the need for more -res.

d) Body armor - It doesn't take any endurance and you won't need that much resistance anyway since you'll be at the soft cap. It's lightly slotted on purpose and even if it was more heavily slotted, it really offers meager protection. This is sort of a set mule, but still it's a useful power for what it does.

e) Caltrops is lightly slotted. You only need it for area denial and the little bit of slow in the end/slow/recharge IO I put in it will ensure it will still slow down high conning mobs. With the global recharge you have, it will be up for every fight.

3. Since you're the Goat, I went with an unlimited budget approach. So, the build has 2 purple sets, 2 LoTG recharges, a Miracle proc, a Numina proc, 2 Posi blast sets and 3 BoTZ for travel. Feel free to subsitute out as desired. Replacing Stupefy for Absolute Amazement and another Posi's Blast for Armaggedon won't hurt the performance of the build that much. Nor would just slotting health with just plain vanilla health IOs. The build has 53.8% global recharge, which is pretty nice for an AR/Dev blaster at the soft cap.

4. Probably, the only thing I'd personally do different on the build is take Ignite, since I find it group friendly. I never bother with the snipe because even with the bonus from targeting drone it still doesn't outright kill high conning minions. Time Bomb is still awful and the most skippable power of the set....the power is bad solo *and* on teams. I've tried to like it but by the time you've deployed it, you could've killed 2 other full spawns.

Anyways, the build:

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

IO-ed AR-Dev: Level 50 Science Blaster
Primary Power Set: Assault Rifle
Secondary Power Set: Devices
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Munitions Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Burst -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 1: Web Grenade -- TotHntr-Acc/Rchg(A), TotHntr-EndRdx/Immob(9), TotHntr-Acc/EndRdx(15), TotHntr-Immob/Acc(17), TotHntr-Acc/Immob/Rchg(45), TotHntr-Dam%(46)
Level 2: Slug -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(7), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(36), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 4: Buckshot -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(5), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(7), Posi-Dmg/Rng(17), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(36)
Level 6: Caltrops -- TmpRdns-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(A)
Level 8: Combat Jumping -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-ResKB(9), LkGmblr-Rchg+(45)
Level 10: Targeting Drone -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(11), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(11), GSFC-Build%(25), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(37), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(40)
Level 12: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-ResKB(15)
Level 16: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(31)
Level 18: Flamethrower -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(19), Posi-Dam%(19), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21), Posi-Dmg/Rng(25)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(21)
Level 22: Beanbag -- Amaze-Stun(A), Amaze-Stun/Rchg(23), Amaze-Acc/Stun/Rchg(23), Amaze-Acc/Rchg(42), Amaze-EndRdx/Stun(43)
Level 24: Cloaking Device -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(34)
Level 26: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(27), RechRdx-I(27)
Level 28: Trip Mine -- Erad-Dmg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(29), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(29), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(31), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(31)
Level 30: Super Speed -- Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(A), Zephyr-ResKB(43)
Level 32: Full Auto -- Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(A), Ragnrk-Dmg(33), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(33), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Ragnrk-Knock%(34)
Level 35: Taser -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(36), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(42), Stpfy-KB%(43), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(46), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(46)
Level 38: Gun Drone -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(39), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 41: Body Armor -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/EndRdx(A), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(42)
Level 44: Surveillance -- AnWeak-Acc/DefDeb(A), AnWeak-Acc/Rchg(45)
Level 47: Cryo Freeze Ray -- Lock-Acc/Hold(A), Lock-Acc/Rchg(48), Lock-Rchg/Hold(48), Lock-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(48), Lock-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(50), Lock-%Hold(50)
Level 49: Smoke Grenade -- ToHitDeb-I(A), ToHitDeb-I(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- ULeap-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Defiance
------------
Set Bonus Totals:

• 5.5% DamageBuff(Smashing)
• 5.5% DamageBuff(Lethal)
• 5.5% DamageBuff(Fire)
• 5.5% DamageBuff(Cold)
• 5.5% DamageBuff(Energy)
• 5.5% DamageBuff(Negative)
• 5.5% DamageBuff(Toxic)
• 5.5% DamageBuff(Psionic)
• 4.25% Defense(Smashing)
• 4.25% Defense(Lethal)
• 5.5% Defense(Fire)
• 5.5% Defense(Cold)
• 28.3% Defense(Energy)
• 28.3% Defense(Negative)
• 3% Defense(Psionic)
• 5.5% Defense(Melee)
• 37.7% Defense(Ranged)
• 8% Defense(AoE)
• 1.8% Max End
• 2.5% Enhancement(Held)
• 3% Enhancement(Stun)
• 5% Enhancement(Immobilize)
• 78% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 53.8% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
• 17% FlySpeed
• 94.9 HP (7.87%) HitPoints
• 17% JumpHeight
• 17% JumpSpeed
• Knockback (Mag -12)
• Knockup (Mag -12)
• MezResist(Held) 4.95%
• 25.5% (0.43 End/sec) Recovery
• 20% (1.01 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 8.19% Resistance(Fire)
• 8.19% Resistance(Cold)
• 17% RunSpeed