Luminara

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is there a chance that you could actually itemize what the exact defiance boosts are for each of the attacks?

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I've been meaning to do that, but between seeing others post the numbers in the Blaster forum and me waiting for the Aimed Shot pause bug to be fixed (by the way, Ranged Shot is also bugged, has an annoying pause at the end during which no activated power will work, same as Aimed Shot), I just haven't gotten around to it.

I'll dig up the numbers from the Blaster forum and list them here soon.

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I thought that was just the 'no redraw pause' that Babs was talking about.

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No, the bug with Aimed and Ranged is exactly the same as the old Ranged bug. The animation for either attack plays, ends, and you aren't rooted, but anything that you try to activate, any power, will simply not work until about one second after the Aimed or Ranged animation ends.

Easiest way to see it is to start moving and fire any attack, then Aimed, then any attack. After the first attack, you'll barely move, if at all, before the Aimed animation starts, but you'll move a good distance before the third attack starts.

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The exact moment of aggro is immediately after the player animation ("point bow at roof") ends and just before the arrows come falling out of the sky.


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How long is that? are you rooted during it like full auto?

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The "point bow at roof" animation is 4 seconds, rooted. That's the no aggro period.

The AI is alerted when the RoA pet spawns, but due to server latency, lag at the player's end, etc., that can be anywhere from immediately after the rooted animation ends to one second after. That's the time when the spawn will aggro. You're free to move, teleport, fly, jump, /e drumdance, whatever, at that moment, so you can duck around a corner, or back up, or run forward, or shoot something else, whatever.

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Oh, also...will cloaking device prevent the mobs from aggroing until after the 4 second firing animation from RoA is complete? or will they still start scattering the minute you point your bow at the roof?

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RoA already works that way, unless you're within perception range when you begin the animation. You receive no aggro, at all, until the RoA pet spawns, and the pet doesn't spawn until the "point your bow at the roof" animation has ended.

I spent a good few weeks just flying around Brickstown after I got my Archery/Energy to 34 (and RoA fully slotted), doing nothing but using RoA on spawns, and I never pulled aggro on any of the spawns until the RoA animation was over. And by the time the spawns reacted, they were all defeated and I typically took only one or two hits, if any at all. Works exactly the same in missions, spawns just don't aggro until the animation is over.

The exact moment of aggro is immediately after the player animation ("point bow at roof") ends and just before the arrows come falling out of the sky.

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is there a chance that you could actually itemize what the exact defiance boosts are for each of the attacks?

[/ QUOTE ]

I've been meaning to do that, but between seeing others post the numbers in the Blaster forum and me waiting for the Aimed Shot pause bug to be fixed (by the way, Ranged Shot is also bugged, has an annoying pause at the end during which no activated power will work, same as Aimed Shot), I just haven't gotten around to it.

I'll dig up the numbers from the Blaster forum and list them here soon.

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In the full thread, I only see one build posted, so I thought I'd offer my current build for review.

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Thank you. I'd like to see more players posting builds, a lot of good ideas and discussion can spring forth. I'll put up my current and planned Archery/Energy and Archery/Devices builds, and my current TA/A when I get some time.

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Thank you for your wonderful TA and archery posts.
My TA/archery is 42, and <b>will</b> be my next 50.
What I wanted to ask about is if other people, defenders specifically, seem to be having a damage problem later on. I've heard that mst of the later mobs have some lethal resists. I seem to be hittng very well, just doing bubkes for damage (which would be consistent with resistant mobs). should I just use Disruption and suck it up ?

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Lethal resistance does become more common in the late game, but it's not quite as bad as it's made out to be. That's not to say that there are only a few critters with Lethal resistance, but that the resistance itself tends to be limited to specific villain groups (such as Malta) or specific critters within a villain group (Ice Thorn Casters with Ice Armor active), and is balanced by some villains or villain groups having no Lethal resistance (Council), or even taking extra Lethal damage (Carnies have built-in -Res to Lethal damage).

Personally, I'm just not finding it to be a serious problem, and never have. I avoid the stuff with Lethal resistance when I can, and just fall back on Acid + Disruption when I can't. On a team, I let someone with more damage output take care of the annoying critters while I focus on other things. Solo, I pick missions with critters that have no (or very light or limited) Lethal resistance. In both cases, I think back to when I was dealing with Crey * Tanks and their insane Lethal resistances and am grateful because I just haven't fought anything that irritating since then (except Malta, and i can avoid them easily enough).

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I'm not sure if it still applies, but from what I'm getting from Mids' and City of Data, Ice Arrow has a 3.33 animation time rather than 1.83. Any verification on which one is correct?

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My information. It came straight from a PM from Castle and has been verified in-game.

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ZOMG! Someone stole my clothes!



*Hides*

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You should be happy. Those shoes are hideous.

I do like some of the other options, but not enough to spend money right now. I need to keep saving and renew my account for as long as possible so I can shave some off of the total cost. If the costume options are still around after that, I might invest in them... they'd look nice on an Alice in Wonderland character that I've had in mind for a while.

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<QR>
I still find myself corpse blasting on a regular basis even with the new reduced times. Each mish I would say I waste about 15-20 shots on dead corpses. As far as I remember it wasn't this bad before the animations were fixed. Anyone experiencing more corpse blasting post fix?

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Not really. I double-tap about as often as I miss. But with the new speed of the animations, I really don't worry about it much, I'm not losing any appreciable time and always have something else available. I'll keep an eye on it, though, and see if I'm doing it more often than I was noticing.

I've never actually been able to play during one of these events. I'm looking forward to this one, though, because I have a character at level 38 and another at level 39, both of which I'm extremely anxious to get past the horrible pre-40s hump.

I also want to try to leverage it to get my new TA/Dark, Parthenia, up to the teens quickly. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate the early levels, but the concept is so good that I don't want to abandon the character (this is my Luminara replacement, but on Liberty instead of Pinnacle!). >.<

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- Jock Tamson, Who hopes he will be rewarded with inspiration.

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*hands Jock a Second Wind*

Enjoy.

After spending a couple of days running missions and getting more experience with the IO build, I talked myself into going ahead with another respec to make a few minor changes. This is almost a record for me, two respecs in less than a week (recently respeced my Ill/Rad twice in a single day because i couldn't stand using the Ice APP any longer and thought i wanted the Earth APP, then realized it just wasn't "doing it" for me and respec again into Fire).

This is the "final" build that I've been playing.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.30
http://www.honourableunited.org.uk/mhd.php

Dancing Hawk: Level 50 Magic Defender
Primary Power Set: Trick Arrow
Secondary Power Set: Archery
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Medicine
Ancillary Pool: Power Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Entangling Arrow -- Acc-I:45(A)
Level 1: Snap Shot -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Glue Arrow -- RechRdx-I:45(A), RechRdx-I:45(3), ImpSwft-Dam%:27(3)
Level 4: Aimed Shot -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(5), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(5), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:50(7), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(17), Decim-Build%:28(36)
Level 6: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A), Jump-I:50(7), Jump-I:50(9)
Level 8: Poison Gas Arrow -- FtnHyp-Acc/Sleep/Rchg:50(A), FtnHyp-Acc/Rchg:50(9), FtnHyp-Sleep/Rchg:50(11), FtnHyp-Sleep/EndRdx:50(21), FtnHyp-Plct%:50(37), CSndmn-Heal%:22(43)
Level 10: Fistful of Arrows -- Acc-I:45(A), HO:Centri(11), HO:Centri(19), HO:Centri(34), Posi-Dam%:42(36), RechRdx-I:45(36)
Level 12: Blazing Arrow -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(13), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(13), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:50(25), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(25), RechRdx-I:45(42)
Level 14: Acid Arrow -- HO:Lyso(A), HO:Lyso(15), Achilles-ResDeb%:11(15), RechRdx-I:45(19), RechRdx-I:45(37)
Level 16: Assault -- EndRdx-I:40(A), EndRdx-I:40(17), EndRdx-I:45(46)
Level 18: Swift -- Run-I:40(A), Run-I:40(48), Run-I:45(50)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I:45(A), EndMod-I:45(21), EndMod-I:45(45)
Level 22: Ice Arrow -- HO:Endo(A), HO:Endo(23), Hold-I:45(23), RechRdx-I:45(29)
Level 24: Disruption Arrow -- RechRdx-I:45(A), RechRdx-I:45(42)
Level 26: Oil Slick Arrow -- AirB'st-Dmg/Rchg:50(A), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg:50(27), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:50(27), P'ngTtl-Dmg/Slow:50(29)
Level 28: Combat Jumping -- ULeap-Stlth:50(A), Krma-ResKB:16(31)
Level 30: Aid Other -- Dct'dW-Heal:40(A), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx:36(31), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:33(31), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:32(37), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg:30(42)
Level 32: EMP Arrow -- HO:Endo(A), HO:Endo(33), Hold-I:45(33), RechRdx-I:45(33), RechRdx-I:45(34), RechRdx-I:45(34)
Level 35: Aid Self -- Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:30(A), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:30(40), Dct'dW-Heal:30(46), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx:32(46), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg:36(48)
Level 38: Rain of Arrows -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:29(A), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:26(39), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:50(39), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:25(39), Posi-Dmg/Rng:49(40), RechRdx-I:45(40)
Level 41: Power Build Up -- AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg:29(A), AdjTgt-Rchg:35(43), RechRdx-I:45(43)
Level 44: Aim -- AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg:31(A), AdjTgt-Rchg:35(45), RechRdx-I:45(45)
Level 47: Tactics -- GSFC-Build%:42(A), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx:40(48), EndRdx-I:45(50), EndRdx-I:45(50)
Level 49: Resuscitate -- Empty(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]+4% DamageBuff[*]+5% Defense(Energy)[*]+38% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]+8% Enhancement(Heal)[*]+26.3% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]+13% FlySpeed[*]+13% JumpSpeed[*]+Knockback (Mag -4)[*]+MezResist(Terrorized) (Mag 4.4%)[*]+10.5% Recovery[*]+6.62% Resistance(Fire)[*]+6.62% Resistance(Cold)[*]+13% RunSpeed[/list]


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</pre><hr />

All of the IO levels are correctly represented. I do lose various bonuses at sometimes wildly different times in the same power when exemplaring, but the procs and uniques continue to work at all levels, and the overall values that I need to be higher do tend to remain higher in most cases due to the extra stats from the higher level enhancements.

I removed and sold the procs in OSA, Ice and Entangling, they simply weren't giving enough of a return to justify the slots they were taking up. The subsequently freed slots were recycled back in where they could be used to gain set bonuses, mostly in Aid Other with a 5/6 set of Doctored Wounds.

I also stopped chasing +Movement bonuses, having realized that even though they looked like they were going to add up to moderately nice totals on paper, they simply weren't going to be noticeable in the game. I'd be able to tell if I were moving slightly faster if I were actually timing my movement with a stopwatch, but not when I'm just hopping along, and when I'm bouncing, my mind isn't on whether or not I'm benefiting from another 1'/second, it's on how much I'm enjoying the experience. And I do thoroughly enjoy it now, so I've achieved a point of "good enough".

Also of note on +Movement bonuses, I've determined that what I have now is almost exactly what I need to leap up onto train platforms. Slotting Hurdle with three level 50 common Jump IOs and leaving Combat Jumping unslotted for Jump, I was incapable of clearing the rail surrounding the platform, but if I turned on Sprint, I could just make it onto the rail and thus skip running up the ramp. So this tells me two things: first, that +Movement affects leaping height as well as speed, which is an interesting discovery (well, interesting to me); and second, that a minimum of 10% +Jump Height is required to make that specific leap. So regardless of whatever future changes I might make to this build, I'll never go below 10% +Movement, that's what I consider my baseline from this point on.

The procs in Glue, Fistful and PGA continue to impress me more with every mission I run. With my current slotting, the buff from Assault and the small bit of +Damage from set bonuses, I'm seeing the procs almost exactly match Fistful's damage, so every time one of them triggers, I'm essentially getting the equivalent of a "free" Fistful of damage (not dollars). It's actually very useful, essentially allowing me to spend less time attacking and burn through spawns more quickly. The fact that they continue to function when exemplared is just delightful, they made my runs through Flashback story arcs to get badges MUCH more enjoyable. These two procs alone are performing well enough that I'm beginning to feel comfortable with exemplaring, something that I've been very negative about in the past. I ran through the David Wincott story arc via the Flashback system, exemplared to level 14, and blazed through every run. I didn't try the Player Debuffed, Enemy Buffed or No Enhancements challenges, because I'm really not interested in feeling like I have to struggle to play (this is my main, i want to have fun, not grit my teeth to make it through something), but I did play with all of the other challenge settings and found them to be very easy to accomplish even at that level.

The Placate proc in PGA is much more powerful than most people would likely believe. While it is only a 33% chance to trigger, what makes it so good for PGA is that it's a mag 4 proc, meaning it can affect up to bosses, whereas the Sleep in PGA is only mag 2 and thus doesn't affect anything above minions. Essentially, the proc expands PGA's damage mitigation to a potential 100% versus bosses, and that alone makes it immensely useful. It's not a guarantee, it's a chance, but it's a chance that didn't exist outside of OSA or EMP, the only other powers in TA that could effectively negate bosses without being stacked with something else. Additionally, the proc increases the likelihood that minions will be taken out of the equation. What this proc is doing is essentially turning PGA into a one-shot minion disabler and offering a chance to deal with lieutenants and bosses at the same time. And it's really effective. I'm tearing through scanner missions set to Heroic in just a few minutes now, and I almost never do anything more than Glue and PGA a spawn before attacking (solo). It's improved my safety and speed tremendously.

The Heal proc is still making me wonder if it was the best use of a slot, but at the same time, I'm starting to lean on it a bit and use it pro-actively. Instead of healing myself up before approaching a spawn, I'm now simply running to the next spawn and hoping for one or two lucky heals from the proc. Worst case, it doesn't heal me and I have to duck around a corner after the Glue/PGA alpha to use Aid Self, but it's triggering just often enough that I can usually keep going from spawn to spawn without touching Aid Self, just relying on normal regen and occasional heals from the proc, until the fifth or sixth spawn, and sometimes not at all for an entire mission. It's a bit risky, but between the damage debuff from PGA, the Recharge Slow from Glue and the combination of Sleep and Placate effects, I'm starting to see it all work together pretty well. The only time I even consider using Ice is when I get to a mezzing critter (heavy mezzing critter, not a minion with a short Hold or Stun) or I've been unlucky and taken enough damage to drop me into the orange.

The -Res proc also continues to delight me, it's simply unbelievable for a TA, especially in concert with one or both Build Up procs. If I get lucky and get one of the Build Up procs triggering after the Achilles' Heel proc, it literally almost doubles my damage output. Aimed Shot goes from 80 to 150+, for example. It's a glorious sight to see. I haven't had both Build Up procs trigger at the same time, or within a short enough span to both be active at the same time, but if it does happen... well, I feel sorry for whatever I might be shooting at, because it's going to hurt.

With all of the different procs that I've got now, I'm seeing a really notable upswing in damage. At least one proc of some type is triggering in every spawn. Sometimes it's Glue, sometimes it's Fistful, sometimes it's Acid, sometimes it's one of the Build Ups, but at this point, I've got an almost constant source of extra damage, and it's very effective. I have to debuff less, I'm barely bothering with control at all, and I'm spending less time attacking, and still moving along at a very rapid pace (i have to wait for Glue to finish recharging for at least half of the spawns now) and maintaining very nice levels of both health and endurance. I'm actually anxious to see how all of this works out on a good team, and on a bad one.

Moving slots to Aid Other for the 5/6 Doctored Wounds set hasn't profoundly changed the feel of the build, so I'm still scrutinizing everything in search of ways that I could improve, but in general, unless I suddenly find myself in possession of a wildly enormous amount of influence, or fall backwards into a pile of purple IOs, I don't see anything else in the build changing. It'd be nice to slot RoA with 5/6 Ragnarok, or Aimed with Apocalypse and Blazing with Decimation, but I really don't foresee that ever happening, or if it does, it'll be far in the future, so I'm probably not going to respec again for a good, long time.

Something to keep in mind while reading all of this is that I solo at Heroic, both out of preference and due to extremely negative experiences back when TA was in the dark days. Those who have had to try to deal with a +1 Warwolf boss as a TA will understand (and i'll say again, i am absolute ELATED that the developers finally fixed the bug that allowed Council lieutenants to spawn boss-level Wolves when they self-defeated), it's just an awful, nightmarish experience. I like playing at Heroic because I'm trying to relax and have fun, not prove myself or see how far I can push my build/character before hitting a wall, but I'm also extremely skittish about bosses after those Warwolf experiences, I just do not ever want to have to deal with that kind of... bleh, and I classify all bosses as bleh at this point. I could quite easily handle them with EMP + Ice, or simply switch to Psi as my APP and stack Ice with Dominate, but I prefer to avoid them simply because they're more trouble than they're worth.

Finally, I'm going to take a moment to toot my own horn. I just hit 341 badges this afternoon, before leaving for work. That's a very big accomplishment for me, because I don't actively farm (the only badge that i ever did that much work for was Illusionist, and i will NEVER do that again. ugh!), I just try to collect them through normal play. One of the reasons I chose to make a travel power-less TA/A my badge character was that it was something that many people would've considered nearly impossible back in the dark days, and where other people consider defeating an AV solo to be a challenge, I consider doing normal things with unusual characters to be achievements. There are different types of challenge in this game, what the developers offer and what we create for ourselves, and I find the latter to be far more rewarding because it's more personal. So getting past 300 badges not only fulfilled a personal goal and gave me a sense of achievement, it also gives me further drive to continue playing and finding new challenges, like reaching 400 badges.

[ QUOTE ]
I suppose I should add that I am wondering if I should even take Snap Shot... I would like to, but if I do, it will push me back from getting Aid Self, which I am wanting to use with PFF. And I wouldn't be able to get Force of Nature, either. What do you think?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you'd probably get by just fine up to the 40s, especially since you're used to not having the ability to fire through mez, but post-40, I really would recommend trying to fit it in somewhere, even if it's a respec build.

There's no requirement for blasters to have Snap Shot, it's not going to make the game impossible to play if you don't, but it is a very nice tool to have. Anyone who's fought Malta, Rikti or Carnies will appreciate how drastically it changes the game, being able to defeat a critter while mezzed instead of just standing there, waiting for the single/double-digit damage to finish you off sometime in the next five to ten minutes because you ran out of Break Frees (or, like me, try not to be dependent on them).

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Glue Arrow

-Runspeed, -Jumpheight, and -Recharge.

Only the -Runspeed is enhanceable.

[/ QUOTE ]

if you slot it with a Slow SO, does it list Slow Run, Slow Jump and Slow Fly?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll copy over to the test server and try it out. If Run Speed debuffs are actually universal movement speed debuffs, then it will show all three of those. If not, then it should only show Slow Run, because Glue doesn't apply a Jump or Fly speed debuff, it applies -Jump Height and -Fly, both of which are effectively more like status effects and neither of which should affect the speed of the respective movement types.

And on the other hand, while trying out different IOs for my TA/A, I noticed last night that 3-slotted Hurdle (level 50 common IOs) and unslotted Combat Jumping together are insufficient to allow a level 50 character to leap up over the rail of a train station, starting from the ground, but a total of 28% +Movement Speed from IO sets allows one to successfully make it onto the rail and thus skip running up the platform. So Jump Height might be the key, as it does appear to be directly tied to Jump Speed.

Either way, the proc is still the responsible party, as it shouldn't trigger twice at once (potentially three times, if it also checks Fly Speed, but i've only seen double-procs, not triples). Even though it's just Smashing damage, it's still out of line for the basic principle of procs that the developers have outlined (one chance per activation or 10 seconds), and I doubt they're going to go through every power with a Slow effect to make the necessary changes to prevent double-procs.

[ QUOTE ]
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Does RoA get the 500% damage cap for blasters or the 400% cap for pets?

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a question that I actually don't have an answer for at the moment. I'll have to get back to this...

[/ QUOTE ]

According to Castle, RoA is strictly tied to Pet modifiers for everything, so 400%.

[ QUOTE ]
Well now you made this complicated for me =P I was working on the Blaster Guides and FAQs, and someone recommended your Archery Codex for the Archery section. Now there's this. Should I add both?

[/ QUOTE ]

No. Stick with the Archery Codex for blaster use. While I do and will continue to discuss Archery in this guide, it's only in relevance to TA/A as a whole and not terribly suitable for blaster use.

I've spent the last couple of days playing Dancing Hawk (my TA/A) pretty heavily. Early yesterday morning, I finally decided that I had enough influence, between what I'd saved from missions and a task force, and what I predicted from the sales of HOs and a Ragnarok +Damage recipe, to push ahead with my respec plan.

This is my current build.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.30
http://www.honourableunited.org.uk/mhd.php

Dancing Hawk: Level 50 Magic Defender
Primary Power Set: Trick Arrow
Secondary Power Set: Archery
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Medicine
Ancillary Pool: Power Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Entangling Arrow -- Acc-I:45(A), TotHntr-Dam%:36(3)
Level 1: Snap Shot -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Glue Arrow -- RechRdx-I:45(A), RechRdx-I:45(3), ImpSwft-Dam%:30(5)
Level 4: Aimed Shot -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(5), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(7), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:50(17), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(36), Decim-Build%:40(45)
Level 6: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A), Jump-I:50(7), Jump-I:50(9)
Level 8: Poison Gas Arrow -- FtnHyp-Acc/Sleep/Rchg:50(A), FtnHyp-Acc/Rchg:50(9), FtnHyp-Sleep/Rchg:50(11), FtnHyp-Sleep/EndRdx:50(21), FtnHyp-Plct%:50(37), CSndmn-Heal%:45(43)
Level 10: Fistful of Arrows -- Acc-I:45(A), HO:Centri(11), HO:Centri(19), HO:Centri(34), Empty(36), RechRdx-I:45(36)
Level 12: Blazing Arrow -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(13), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(13), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:50(25), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(25), RechRdx-I:45(42)
Level 14: Acid Arrow -- HO:Lyso(A), HO:Lyso(15), Achilles-ResDeb%:20(15), RechRdx-I:45(19), RechRdx-I:45(37)
Level 16: Assault -- EndRdx-I:40(A), EndRdx-I:40(17), Empty(50)
Level 18: Swift -- Run-I:40(A), Run-I:40(48), Run-I:40(50)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I:45(A), EndMod-I:45(21), EndMod-I:45(45)
Level 22: Ice Arrow -- HO:Endo(A), HO:Endo(23), Hold-I:45(23), RechRdx-I:45(42), NrncSD-Dam%:30(43)
Level 24: Disruption Arrow -- RechRdx-I:45(A), RechRdx-I:45(42)
Level 26: Oil Slick Arrow -- AirB'st-Dmg/Rchg:50(A), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg:50(27), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:50(27), P'ngTtl-Dmg/Slow:45(29), ImpSwft-Dam%:30(29), LdyGrey-%Dam:50(31)
Level 28: Combat Jumping -- ULeap-Stlth:45(A), Krma-ResKB:16(31)
Level 30: Aid Other -- Empty(A), Empty(31), Empty(37)
Level 32: EMP Arrow -- HO:Endo(A), HO:Endo(33), Hold-I:35(33), RechRdx-I:35(33), RechRdx-I:45(34), RechRdx-I:45(34)
Level 35: Aid Self -- Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:30(A), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:30(40), Dct'dW-Heal:30(46), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx:30(46), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg:30(48)
Level 38: Rain of Arrows -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:29(A), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:26(39), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:50(39), Posi-Dmg/Rng:49(39), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:26(40), RechRdx-I:45(40)
Level 41: Power Build Up -- RechRdx-I:45(A), RechRdx-I:45(43), Empty(46)
Level 44: Aim -- RechRdx-I:45(A), RechRdx-I:45(45), Empty(50)
Level 47: Tactics -- Empty(A), Empty(48)
Level 49: Resuscitate -- Empty(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx-I:45(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]+5% Defense(Energy)[*]+38% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]+4% Enhancement(Heal)[*]+21.3% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]+8% FlySpeed[*]+8% JumpSpeed[*]+Knockback (Mag -4)[*]+MezResist(Terrorized) (Mag 2.2%)[*]+10.5% Recovery[*]+5.36% Resistance(Fire)[*]+5.36% Resistance(Cold)[*]+8% RunSpeed[/list]


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</pre><hr />

I originally started out with the intention of picking up all of the +Movement/Jump Speed bonuses that I could squeeze in, but I ran out of influence after purchasing the IO sets, procs and uniques and the appropriate salvage to build them. I actually had to do a couple of missions with most of the common IOs not in the powers, hoping for a drop or two to pay for those.

Even during those first two post-respec missions, I was thoroughly impressed with the results. I'd managed to get to Atlas Park when a Rikti invasion alert went out just a few hours before the respec, and one of the problems I'd noted was that I couldn't keep my endurance bar from bottoming out, despite only having Sprint and Assault running (both heavily slotted for Endurance Reduction). Before the animation changes, that was my standard toggle use and I never had endurance problems, but with the faster animations came faster endurance loss, and I quickly found that I couldn't even defeat a half-HP bomb before running out of endurance.

However, after slotting the Thunderstrikes, moving the +Stealth IO to Combat Jumping and ignoring Sprint completely (no slots, keep forgetting to turn it on now even when i'm traveling), I wasn't even getting down to 75% on my endurance bar, despite not having any Endurance Reduction enhancements in Assault. Just cutting the endurance costs of two of my main attacks made that much of a difference. So much of a difference that I immediately started reconsidering my final slotting and started planning out another respec.

I did manage to get lucky, a Magical Conspiracy dropped in the second mission, which I sold and then used the influence to purchase the rest of the salvage I needed for the common IOs to complete the build. Then one more mission to test the results, and it was off to bed for the day (i work evening shift, so i usually go to bed anywhere from 2 am to 6-7 am and sleep until between 11 am and 3 pm. and i had Sunday off).

This evening, I logged back in to do some more extensive testing and continue to replenish my influence, as there were still a few IOs that I wanted, like the -KB IO.

I had already slotted Oil Slick as seen above a few weeks ago, as a test, to see how well the procs would work out. To say that I was less than impressed would be an understatement. I was so underwhelmed that I was a breath away from scrapping the planned build, but my experiences with the Achilles' Heel: Chance for Resist Debuff IO had been so good that I just had to see how well the other procs would work. And I'm glad I did, because I have to say, in the right powers, procs are definitely very nice.

Glue with the Smashing proc is great. It's that tiny bit of extra damage that saves me an attack or finishes off a critter for me, and I don't have to do anything but play normally. The fact that it has up to four chances to trigger, that's just nifty, too, but seeing those orange numbers float up when I use Glue, it just makes me happy.

Tip - if you slot this, take a little time to run around lowbie zones and Glue random large spawns. Watching critters keel over because you shot Glue Arrow at them is all kinds of giggletastic.

The -Res proc in Acid was a given, and is impressing me greatly. As I said, I've already had some good experiences with it, playing my Energy/Rad blaster, but it's just wonderful in Acid. An instant 40% -Res on one or more targets? Oh, yes, I think I like that very much. I like it even more when the Build Up proc triggers while the -Res proc is in effect. The combination of the two quite literally nearly doubles my damage output. I almost feel sorry for the critters when it happens. Almost.

The Build Up proc doesn't trigger nearly as often as I'd like (i added Healing Delivered to my main chat window so i could track it and make an effort to use it efficiently), but every time it does, I'm very happy that I spent the influence to get it and the slot to use it. I've seen it proc twice in a row once, and almost wet myself out of sheer glee, but I'm quite satisfied with the random "Here Lumi, have some free damage".

I know some of you are staring at my PGA slotting and scratching your heads. Lemme 'splain. Prior to the respec, I teamed up with a friend, Spark-1, to do the last three missions of Dark Watcher's story arc. In the final mission, after I'd died for the second time (for some reason, i'm just pulling aggro left and right lately...), I was lying there keeping Sparky company after the two EBs had been defeated and decided to check my recipe drops. To my surprise, there was purple text, a Sleep/End recipe. I already knew, from having purchased 5/6 of the purple Confuse set for my Ill/Rad, that it wouldn't be worth much at the market, but I thought it was quite thrilling to get an ultra-rare drop on my TA/A. Then I started thinking about buying four more recipes from the set and slotting up PGA with it, instead of the intended 2 Recharge Reduction IOs and the Heal proc. It does have some nice set bonuses, after all, and for this build to match my SO build, I was going to need some minor +Recharge bonuses to make up for the missing few percentage in powers that I was slotting with 2 IOs instead of 3 SOs.

After taking another look at my planned IO build, I decided that I could spare three extra slots to at least test PGA, and the build, with 5/6 of the Fortunata Hypnosis set. And it turned out to be a pretty solid decision. Instead of the +Sleep recipe, I chose the Chance for Placate recipe, and it's actually improved my damage mitigation quite a bit, as well as my combat efficiency. In the tests I've been doing, I've found that a Placated critter drops its toggles, or turns off a power that simulates a toggle, then has to wait for it to recharge or cycles back into its command list to use it again. That, in turn, means that critters like Ice Thorn Casters become less of a hassle, as Placate will cause them to drop their Ice Armor. Less missing, more damage because they only have Lethal resistance when the armor is active, happy Lumi. I also noted that between the 66% chance to Sleep and 33% chance to Placate, I was often finding entire spawns almost entirely stopped completely with a single PGA. Sometimes the Sleep and Placate overlap, other times nothing will be Slept or Placated, but a good deal of the time, I've got most or all of a spawn standing still and looking stupid, and most importantly, not attacking me!

So after testing with the way PGA is slotted now, I'm quite satisfied and intend to keep it exactly like it is. I love the set bonuses, I love the procs, the recipes were quite affordable (even the salvage requirements were much less expensive than other sets) and it's not hard to justify the 3 extra slots for the benefits that I'm getting.

The Heal proc is the one that has thrilled me the least. It triggered all of two or three times in my first round of testing. On the second night of testing, it started triggering somewhat more reliably, at least once every three to five spawns, but still felt pretty unimpressive. I even went out to Perez Park to torture some Hellions and Skulls, testing out Glue and PGA, and couldn't get two heals from any spawn. The last couple of hours that I was playing, it started triggering two or three heals in spawns of two or three, which pleased me, but if it goes back to only triggering one heal once in a great while, I may take it out and move the slot to something else. If it saves my deerskin-clad behind even once, I'll appreciate it and love it forever, but it really needs to do more for me than give me one amusing green number once every hour or two to keep my favor.

The procs in Entangling and Ice are basically there because I consider those "frequent use" powers, things I'll fire off every chance I get in a long, drawn-out fight, but I'm not certain I'll keep those either. The difference between my SO build and this new IO build is just so profound that I've found that I've changed my approach entirely. I almost never used Glue before, I was relying on single-target controls and pumping out as many Archery attacks as I could, but with this new build, I'm opening on every spawn with Glue, following it immediately with PGA, then Acid if I think I need it, and on to the attack phase. The only times I've used the controls is when I've really gotten low on HP and need to back off long enough to use Aid Self, or when I'm facing something that can mez me. The procs work, and they're nice to have, but now that I'm using a different approach, I find myself wondering whether I can improve the build in other areas by moving those two slots elsewhere and getting a more universally useful benefit.

Regarding Aim, PBU and Tactics, I originally intended to just use those as set bonus fodder in order to get another 15% +Movement (two Gaussian's Performance Shifter IOs (third slot reserved for a Recharge Reduction to get them back to a normal recharge rate)), but after seeing the results of the Build Up IO that I have now, and seeing my endurance bar in such a happy place, I've decided to change a few things around. Aim and PBU will be left exactly as they're slotted now, 2 Recharge Reduction IOs, and Tactics will get a third slot so I can put a Gaussian's Build Up IO into it alongside two Endurance Reductions. The overall results should be quite satisfactory. I certainly don't need Tactics with this build, but I won't turn my nose up at another damage buffing tool, and I'm relatively confident that I won't have any endurance issues using it.

The empty slot in Fistful is a placeholder for an Energy damage proc from Posi's Blast. The slot is there in the live, in-game build, I just haven't got enough influence for the proc yet. This is a standard cone slotting technique for me these days, all of my characters with short range cones will have the same slotting. Procs just make so much sense in cones and AoEs, and extending the ranges of the cones really improves their utility, at least for my prefered style of play. I do prefer Centrioles over Dam/Range IOs because the overall buff is higher with HOs, but I'll happily settle for IOs if that's all I can get.

I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to keep OSA six-slotted. The procs really aren't impressing me in the least in that power, though I really did have some high hopes for it previously. A -Res proc would be more useful, or even a -Recharge proc, but frankly, the recharge time is the biggest factor. I'm starting to feel that anything that I put into those last two slots is likely to end up doing less for me than I could achieve by simply moving the slots elsewhere, or going with 3 Dam/Rchg, 1 Dam, 1 Rchg and moving at least one slot somewhere else. I'm actually satisfied with the recharge time as it is, 90.1 seconds, and the extra bit of Slow from the Dam/Slow IO, so I'm leaning toward moving two slots to other powers.

In general, I've very happy with these IOs and this particular build. It wasn't terribly expensive, it feels much more stable and capable than the SO build did (TA/A in previous issues always felt a bit... edgy. dangerous at times, trying to maintain control of situations and stay alive without "wasting" powers). I'm leaning toward doing another respec soon to refine my choices and see how much better I can make it, but even if I don't, I feel like a cleansing wind has swept away the miasma of uncertainty that I had before trying this build out for real, as opposed to laying it out in Mid's. It's just as strong in the ways that it was before the respec, it's gotten a lot of shoring up in its weaker areas and it feels... very good.

I've always loved playing my TA/A, but after this respec, I'm nothing less than ecstatic. I'm going to have to put up a sticky note to myself, reminding me that I have other characters that I should play.

Impeded Swiftness: Chance for Smashing Damage is double-hitting once in a while. Meaning, it can proc twice on a critter for any given check. Saw it happen several times tonight, including once when I hit a spawn of 3 critters (with Glue Arrow) and saw 4 damage numbers.

It's not another proc (this is the only damage proc that can be slotted in Glue), it wasn't an attack, it was this proc.

Already reported to the developers. Enjoy it while it lasts.

[ QUOTE ]
As far as RoA is concerned, does anyone know if Targeting Drone increases the accuracy? I'm suspecting no since it is considered a pet but this is kind of a special case.

[/ QUOTE ]

RoA is one of the buffable pets, just like Blizzard or Rain of Fire. Any buffs currently affecting you will affect RoA when it spawns, including Targeting Drone.

[ QUOTE ]
Does RoA get the 500% damage cap for blasters or the 400% cap for pets?

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a question that I actually don't have an answer for at the moment. I'll have to get back to this...

Here's a new one for the list.

Coercive Persuasion: Contagious Confusion is currently causing aggro when it procs on anything that isn't Confused on the first attempt (typically bosses and above, unless you get a "critical" confuse, and specific critters like Night Widows that are resistant to/protected from Confuse effects).

Developers notified, already being fixed (one parameter to change), but I wanted to let anyone who might be using it (other than me... yay for cheap ultra rare IO sets) know about it.

[ QUOTE ]
The one thing that I haven't gotten answer to though is using if Aimed/Blazing/Aimed/Fistful chain, would there be any point to picking up Snap Shot since it'll rarely be used? Or is that a chain that you only use on a defender and mastermind?

[/ QUOTE ]

My Archery/Energy blaster uses Snap/Aimed/Snap/Blazing for single-target damage, at least as of right now. I'll explain that qualifying remark in a moment, but in any case, I do recommend taking and slotting Snap Shot, even if it's just 3 Damage, for all Archery blasters. It doesn't have to be early, it can be put off until the 30+ part of the game, but once you start seeing status effects become common, you are going to need and want Snap Shot to supplement Aimed Shot, because those will be the only two attacks (other than your tier 1 secondary) that you'll be able to use in some very bad situations. Just a couple of nights ago, I got myself stuck in a perma-Hold when a +1 Rikti Mentalist (lieutenant) caught me before I could hit him with Stunning Shot. He never closed to melee range, so I couldn't Power Thrust him or wait for him to stop mezzing me, and unlike many people, I don't fill my inspiration tray with Break Frees. My only salvation was being able to fire Snap and Aimed while Held, and I was surprised by how quickly I managed to defeat him with just those two attacks.

I have no doubt that I would've been at serious risk in this situation before the Defiance changes, and I'm certain that I would've been cutting it much closer, at least a 50/50 chance of defeat, if I'd been forced to rely on Aimed Shot alone. Snap Shot really proved its value to me right then. As far as I'm concerned, any Archery blaster who doesn't take it and put at least two slots in it so it can be used in situations like that, they're shooting themselves in the foot.

My TA/A defender uses Aimed/Blazing/Aimed/Fistful. That's the chain I've been using since I6 and I have no intention of changing it, despite the fact that I don't have enough +Recharge to make it fluid. I can substitute a debuff or control when I need to, and it's good practice to do just that because I am playing a defender, not a half-damage blaster. I have no use at all for Snap Shot or any chain that allows it when I'm playing my TA/A. I can get more out of glaring at critters than I can out of Snap Shot as a defender.

Now, when I said "at least as of right now" when I was discussing my Archery blaster's attack chain, I just found a perfect way to test the DPS of quite literally every possible Archery chain, allowing me to build up and keep the maximum sustainable Defiance with each chain. That will then give me a chance to find out how long each chain takes to defeat the target, what the effect of the maximum sustainable Defiance will be and how to leverage it efficiently without making it "work", and whether or not it's worth keeping Snap Shot in the chain or just putting it off to the side as a spare attack for when I'm mezzed.

I can't do the DPS tests until the Aimed Shot bug (pause at the end of the animation) is fixed, though, so I'm still sticking to my current recommendation for blasters to take, slot and use Snap Shot in their normal routine.

[ QUOTE ]
Love the guide, however, I wanted to confirm/ask some things.

You say that using Aimed/Blazing/Aimed/Fistful is recommended for pretty much anything regardless of the amount of enemies as opposed to using Snap. Now, my question is is it recommended to pick up Snap Shot at all?

[/ QUOTE ]

Blasters, yes. Defenders and masterminds, in my opinion, no. If a player likes it simply because it's light on endurance, likes the animation, likes having something that deals "enough damage to finish a mob", whatever, that's great, take it and enjoy it, but as I said, in my opinion, I don't recommend it for these two ATs. The section on Snap Shot and DPS explains why.

[ QUOTE ]
I hear you raving about how good Snap Shot is since it got buffed but then you don't even use it in your attack chain therefore giving me mixed messages. You say it's good but you don't get it *confused*.

[/ QUOTE ]

It functions differently for different ATs. I point the finger for confusing anyone straight at the developers for not buffing the defender and/or mastermind versions in conjunction with the blaster version.

[ QUOTE ]
Also, I noticed that your guide didn't recommend how many slots to put into a particular power although most of them are implied through your tactics/strategy or whatnot.

[/ QUOTE ]

I do give suggestions on what enhancements to use, in the Slotting Recommendation: bullet point for each power. I don't suggest that any power be given a specific number of slots because some players may feel that four is enough, whereas others may want to leave it at two, and still others will six-slot certain powers.

It was also important to keep in mind that recommending that any suggested number of slots would be limited to specific types of enhancements. If I had, for instance, said that Aimed Shot should be six-slotted, but some of the readers were using IOs and getting the same general effects of six slots out of four or five, then I would have essentially caused those readers to waste slots, and respecs trying to fix the problem.

Some players are going to be perfectly happy using SOs. Some are going to start slotting IOs as soon as they're available. Some are going to want specific set bonuses, some are going to "frankenslot" with IOs from multiple sets to maximize the attributes of the attacks with the fewest slots possible. So the best way to make the guide accessible and useful to the widest variety of players was to simply suggest what enhancements were most appropriate (from my perspective) and allow them to determine the number of slots for themselves, based on the types of enhancements they intend to use.

SOs aren't the only game in town any longer, and I believe we're at point where six-slotting isn't always the best way to do things any longer either. It's more a matter of getting the right enhanced values now than it is getting the right number of slots.

[ QUOTE ]
However, there are some powers like Explosive Arrow and Stunning Shot, both of which give a murky recommendation as far as slotting goes. For example, you use Explosive Arrow to finish off a group after using RoA, but how often do you use it and how do you slot it?

[/ QUOTE ]

As a blaster, six slots, Acc/3 Dam/2 Rchg, using common level 35 IOs. I eventually intend to put five Positron's Blast into it and one level 45 Recharge Reduction IO. I use it either as a finisher after RoA, if I think the critters are going to survive RoA's damage, or as a combo with Fistful (nice discovery when i was testing last night - Aim + BU + Fistful + Explosive = defeated +0 minions. never was able to do that before I11).

As a defender, I don't use it at all. I follow up RoA with Fistful on my TA/A because it's quicker and I've got more of a safety margin due to my debuffs and controls, so I can afford to get closer to the critters.

[ QUOTE ]
As for Stunning Shot, it seems to be perfectly reasonable to just slot it with accuracy in the default slot and leave it be.

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It depends on how you approach the use of controls. If you want to Stun one target so you can focus on another, then you need to put more slots into it so you can get it recharged more quickly and make the Stun last longer. That's how I use it as a blaster, Stun the lieutenant or really annoying minion (like the Council Marksman or Wolves, or that irritating CoT Ice Thorn Caster with the Ice Armor), focus on whatever can still attack me, get back to the Stunned critter at my leisure.

If a player is just using it as an alpha to prevent a return attack, then sure, a single Accuracy enhancement is fine.

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I understand that you're not trying to tell people what to do, it's just your experience, but it just doesn't really give me a clear idea as to what you really think of it since you kind of go back and forth by saying it's useful but then it's kind of not really.

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Again, the source of the confusion is the disparity between ATs. For blasters, both of those powers are, in my opinion, critical. I simply wouldn't recommend that any blaster skipped Explosive Arrow, partially for the control that it offers (chance for Knockback) and partially because it's a great follow-up for Fistful or Rain of Arrows. And I also feel that Stunning Shot should be in every Archery blaster's list of must-haves, because it's the only hard control in the powerset. Even if the blaster is relying on his/her secondary for control, even if the blaster is gearing toward pure damage output, that one power can make an enormous difference. Being able to Stun a critter from range, with a highly accurate power, can save so much debt, it's not even funny.

And on the flip side, both of these powers are questionable for defenders. Explosive simply doesn't deal enough damage for me to feel that it's worth the endurance cost and recharge time when I'm playing my TA/A. Fistful deals nearly the same damage, recharges in half the time and costs significantly less endurance, so the question has to be, what does Explosive offer a defender? In my opinion, not much. It's even detrimental to many defender tactics and techniques because of the Knockback. Knocking a foe out of your debuffs tends to be a very bad thing (trust me, i've got my Energy/Rad blaster up to 29 now, one thing i've learned is that if you don't have a LOT of Knockback, you're better off not using ANY). And the worst part is, the Knockback isn't even reliable, so the ones who need it to work the most, the defenders, just can't trust it. And Stunning Shot isn't any less of a great control for defenders than it is for blasters, it's simply that by the time it becomes available, it's not necessary. By level 35, a defender should have all of the control options he/she needs. Having one more control isn't going to make a defender stronger or play better, it's not going to fill some great gap in the build, it's just going to be another control, and between buffing, debuffing, using other controls and attacking, trying to cycle in one more control is typically going to mean leaving something else out of the rotation. There just isn't much point to it for defenders.

I do note in every case when I'm pleased with a power for one AT, but dislike it for another AT. Being that this guide is intended to be used by all of the ATs that have Archery powers, I had to make it as cross-functional as possible, but I also endeavored to ensure that each AT had its own points of reference for every power. Any power that isn't exactly the same across ATs, I tried to note how and why it was different and what that's going to mean for the different ATs. And that's the problem, the different ways that the ATs are played and the levels at which they gain the same powers means no single recommendation is going to be appropriate across the board.

And that's also why I keep coming back to the guide, so questions like these can be clarified. Please, everyone, don't hesitate to ask questions, ask for build recommendations, ask how I would slot something for a certain AT, I'm MORE than happy to respond and to see others respond. This guide is here specifically so it can be used as a community resource and collaboration tool. Post, ask questions, show off your builds, give advice, that's why this guide is here.

Special treat for Archery blasters tonight. I managed to tear myself away from my latest obsession, an Energy/Rad blaster on Liberty (shut up, i can make anything i want and i don't HAVE to follow the AT rules! ), to do some testing with my level 39 Archery/Energy blaster on Pinnacle, Sand Wasp. The tests were performed last night, but I needed time to collate the information, get a bit of verification from Castle on a question and reflect on the results.

First, Snap Shot. As I expected, the damage output is almost point for point exactly the same as Aimed Shot used to be before the I11 changes. The difference is very small, so all of the players who are used to Aimed Shot's old damage will feel very comfortable using Snap Shot now. Due to the extremely fast animation, the Defiance buff that Snap grants is small, so using it in a chain is a case of building up a lot of small buffs very quickly, as opposed to using slower attacks to build up fewer, larger buffs.

Snap/Aimed/Snap/Blazing appears to be a very solid single-target chain now, building up a reasonable Defiance buff total quickly and maintaining it easily. However, this chain does require quite a bit of +Recharge overall in order to be fluid. Sand Wasp's current slotting is a mix of 3 Ruin (all level 40) and 2 Thunderstrike IOs (levels 34-39), giving Snap Shot and Blazing Arrow 84.76% +Recharge, and Aimed Shot 61.58% +Recharge, plus 13.75% global +Recharge from IO sets. That's nearly 100% +Recharge total for Snap and Blazing, and over 75% for Aimed, and there's still a very short pause before Blazing Arrow finishes recharging.

Nevertheless, this was with very inexpensive IOs (5/6 Sting of the Manticore in Ranged Shot and 5/6 Stupefy in Stunning Shot, and the Ruins and Thunderstrikes in the three single-target attacks), so it's neither difficult to achieve nor overly burdensome to accomplish.

With the total +Damage from enhancements, Assault and the 3% bonus from Sting of the Manticore, Snap Shot was dealing slightly over 99 damage. To the best of my memory, Aimed Shot prior to I11 was hitting for 105 or 106, so as I said, the final result for Snap is very acceptable as a blaster power now. To put it in more graphical terms, Snap Shot alone should be hitting for roughly 1/4th of a +0 minion's HP bar.

Regarding the attack chain, I did notice that the overall Defiance buff was smaller than I was seeing with Aimed/Blazing/Aimed/Fistful, but I can't offer an opinion on which chain provides superior DPS at this time, for a couple of reasons. First, while I was seeing higher damage totals using the Aimed/Blazing/Aimed/Fistful chain, I was also having to pause more frequently while waiting for recharge times to finish, so I couldn't give an honest and fair estimate of actual DPS of that chain until I can get enough +Recharge to make the chain fluid again (my one disappointment with the animation time changes, this chain relied on the animation times to be fluid). And second, Aimed Shot is bugged at this time. It has a short (0.33 to 0.66 second) pause after the animation ends, during which no queued power will activate. This bug affects both defenders and blasters, and I expect it to be affecting masterminds as well. The problem is simple, the animation time isn't synchronized to the activation time properly, and I've already notified Castle, who in turn has asked BackAlleyBubbles to fix it so I don't start eating babies or snorting fire, but there's no estimate available on when it will be fixed. Therefore, any DPS comparisons that I attempt would be faulty until the bug is resolved, and I'd prefer to wait rather than try to work around the limitation to do the necessary testing.

Aimed Shot hits hard now. I was so excited by what I was seeing that I completely forgot to record the damage (though i did take several screenshots, i'll have to go digging to see what i captured). Even with just Snap Shot's Defiance buff, I was hitting +0 minions for between 40% and 50% of their health. Very impressed with the New and Improved Aimed Shot(tm) and how it interacts with Defiance. Win-win for Archery.

I was surprised to note that Stunning Shot was providing a Defiance buff, roughly 12-13% (after using Stunning Shot, Snap Shot was dealing 105 or 106 damage). I didn't pay much attention the the pre-I11 Defiance change discussions, as I was still up to my ears in guide writing at that time, so discovering that Stunning Shot and my melee powers from /Energy were buffing me was very nice (only have Power Thrust and Stun).

Blazing Arrow went from a powerhouse to a freaking nuclear missle. At one point prior to the respec (i respeced Sand Wasp before conducting the tests last night in order to properly slot up Snap Shot, which i had taken at 38 but not fully slotted because i intended to use it as a cheap place to stick some set IOs for bonuses), I hit a critter for 363 damage with Blazing Arrow. That was without Aim or Build Up, either, just the enhancements, Assault, the 3% from Sting of the Manticore and Defiance. That was using the Aimed/Blazing/Aimed/Fistful chain. Using Snap/Aimed/Snap/Blazing, I was seeing a much smaller damage total with Blazing Arrow, even on the third cycle when the amount of Defiance buffs I could achieve and maintain had leveled out, but it was still hitting extremely hard, much harder than it ever did prior to I11. I know that a lot of players tend to, or want to, use Blazing Arrow first or sooner in their attack chain, but I think everyone will see much more benefit from using it later, or even last in the chain, when you have a healthy Defiance buff built up. I've never seen lieutenants fall over so quickly, and I've fought a lot of lieutenants with a lot of different characters! Even Lethal resistant Warwolves felt the sting of Sand Wasp last night when she started pumping fire into their veins with Blazing Arrow.

Finally, Rain of Arrows remains on the 1.0 Ranged Damage modifier. I did expect this to be the case, because Rain of Arrows isn't a true attack, but a power that summons a pet that performs the attack, but I had been hoping that it would benefit from the blaster changes in some way. But all is not lost, it turns out that RoA did get a buff, in a curious way.

Rain of Arrows buffs itself with Defiance. None of the other attacks that I tested were doing this, so it took me a while to figure it out, but it makes sense in light of how RoA works. Since it summons a buffable pet that gains the benefits of any buffs on the character, it gains the buff from Defiance because the buff is applied when the power animation begins. "Normal" attacks that simply do what they do, attacks that don't summon a pet but instead deliver their damage directly, don't gain the immediate buff from Defiance because the buff doesn't exist until after the power begins to animate and the damage is already factored by that point. But because RoA is different, it ends up gaining its own Defiance buff.

I was limiting my tests to one +0 minion at a time in order to minimize any anomalies, so I never got around to testing whether RoA's Defiance buff increases with more critters in the AoE, but I did note that all of the damage ticks were exactly the same, so Defiance does not buff the power on a per tick basis, that much I do know.

Overall, at the level at which I was testing, the buff from Defiance was small (but certainly enough to throw me into total confusion while i tried to figure out why the power was dealing more damage than i'd calculated, using the same equation that had perfectly predicted Snap, Aimed and Blazing's damage), and it may end up being little more than an interesting quirk, but it was certainly nice to see that even RoA had become, in at least some small way, even better with I11.

That concluded the time I had for testing, and cleared most of my list, but I do intend to revisit the DPS options using different attack chains after the Aimed Shot bug is fixed and I get enough +Recharge to make accurate comparisons. I am still quite enamored with my old Aimed/Blazing/Aimed/Fistful chain because it offers a lot of potential extra DPS via hitting additional targets with Fistful, so I'll be scrutinizing both chains carefully at some future date to determine which is optimal and whether achieving "optimal" is the best option based on how difficult it is to get the chain to be fluid again.

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While I was able to get the power info from Mids,

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Oh, that reminds me, the damage output listed for Oil Slick Arrow in Mid's is way off. It's twice what it should be. The correct numbers are...

Duration: 15
Ticks: 75
Probability: 0.75

However, if you're changing the values yourself, you may wish to set Probability to 0.95, or even 1, because the Defense Debuff in OSA directly contributes to the chance for each tick to hit, but the planner doesn't factor that when calculating hit chances for any powers. For simplicity of use and convenience, I just set the value to 1.

The database editor is pretty simple to use, but anyone who's uncomfortable making changes him/herself can probably just ignore the errors and wait for an update, it's not a big deal.