Miladys_Knight

Well that's not entirely accurate. The numbers from closed beta show incendiary rounds as a solid below average. It comes in under energy blast but above the next lowest.

You are of course right on all counts which is also where the problem lies.

I think many more people would be happy if the animations had been unique yet middle of the road for animation time. It shows that the devs haven't really learned their history lessons from Archery and Assault Rifle.

In regards to blast sets the devs have, with defiance 2.0, demonstrated that a blaster's survival is intended to be by defeating enemies quickly. Long animations reduce DPA and therefore run counter to that assertion. The only case that animations have been left slow have been in the case of powerful debuffs as secondary effects such as sonic. In the case of Dual Pistols the secondary effects were purposely reduced to offset the ability to change ammo types. Changing ammo types simply doesn't cut the mustard in comparison to what it costs in effectiveness. It's a double ding for the set.

I play City of Heroes because I like more choices. IO sets were a stroke of genius because it means that no 2 Fire/Energy/Force blasters need be identical ever again. IO sets give us the same choices with our powers that the costume creator does with our appearance. This is where the problems with the Gun Fu animations arise. The only choice for character concept is gun fu. This is a restriction not a benefit.

True again but every set should be good in some unique way. Dual Pistols isn't. The good thing about dual pistols is the shiney animations for a portion of the player base that likes such things. Animations are only cool for so long you have to have something under the hood for perfomance to fall back on. Dual Pistols doesn't do this.

A better question might be, "should any set HAVE to be dog?" I notice that you glossed over a recently proliferated set that many consider a dog. Psi blast. Poor performance and quickly forgotten. Is Dual Pistols destined to be the same? It would not surprise me at all.

There are some that are interested in just power. For some Power is fun. For some lower than average performance is not fun. For many low performance, especially in a well thought out concept, becomes a toon that is never deleted but also is never played because failure isn't fun.

The devs had the opportunity to make the thing that was unique about the set (swap ammo) the thing that it did well. That isn't the path they tread. They went in the opposite direction and made the unique thing about the set a power that is easily skipped. That's the same mistake they made with Grant Cover for Shields.

Isn't that what a beta test is for? Shouldn't it all ready BE balanced on release? Or did marketing have the devs rush it to put it out as a new shiney to draw in pre-release dollars? I know where I would place my bets.

Why yes that's exactly what many of us were doing. I was comparing it to Energy/Energy which is pretty much middle of the road for performace. There isn't a single thing about Dual Pistols that is better, or equal, when compared to Energy.... Except the shiney animations, the excessive length of which, takes the shine right off of them.

Yes and it could also be a terrible mistake as a pre-release move on marketing's part. Is all the rest of GR going to be underpowered because they burned themselves on Mission Architect?

My wife and I were both going to pre-order GR. We were invited to the beta for DP. DP's condition is the main reason we decided not to pre-order GR (separate markets is the secondary reason) and are taking a wait and see attitude.

Sounds like you might want to roll him up on Pinnacle...........

With non-incendiary rounds it's the worst DPA for AoE and 2nd worst for single target.

It's not as solid as it "should" have been and it really is as bad as most people (not the haters, the number crunchers) make it out to be. Out side of incendiary rounds it's has the worst AoE DPA and 2nd worst single target DPA. The nuke is little more than a tool to get your self killed and violates the dam/rech rule especially when compared to the other weapon set nukes.

It should have allowed players to build all the broad range of concepts that they had in mind instead of the very narrow Gun Fu ones. I know none of my Dual pistols concepts fit the animations and so I'll be waiting until the set is both buffed to at least a mid tier of performance and given alternate "power customization" animations. Past dev track records demonstrate this to be in the 1-3 year range for buffs so for me it won't be any time "soon" (TM).

Since you'll be getting nothing from vigilence solo, the toon will be a total end hog, any expensive toggles you can avoid you should avoid. So I'd focus on -KB IOs, forget about the Acrobatics and just pack/combine break frees. Slotting up the Acc debuff in Darkest Night, slotting Shadow Fall for defense and getting a few ranged defense set bonuses will keep much of the holds off of you.

You are combining defenders (who have horrid DPE especially while solo) with a secondary that has the worst DPA for AoE damage and second worst for single target DPA.

Definately. With enough +rech you can have Tar Patch perma, and can double stack Fearsome Stare. Petrifying Gaze can also be combined with Suppressive Fire (using any non-standard rounds) to quickly hold a boss or you can use Suppressive Fire with standard rounds and Howling Twilight to stun a boss and the minions in a spawn (use Acc/Mez Hami enhancers in Suppressive Fire)

Then Proc out your blasts. Use as many damage procs as you can squeeze in especially on your fast recharging, fast animating attacks (total rech + animation time <10 seconds)

Yep perma this and 4 slot it with the End/Slow/Rech IO from each of the slow sets. Then use corners strategically to keep the spawn in the Patch and grouped together for Darkest Night.

Incendiary brings the DPA of the set up to just under average in comparison to the rest of the defender blast sets. Tar Patch is your slow, Darkest Night, Shadow Fall, and Twilight Grasp will provide most of your mitigation. You'll probably want to keep the pistols dialed to incendiary most of the time for the damage boost since your primary will do you much better than the secondary effects from Cryo or Toxic.

Jump Kick as you'll want to avoid the end heavy toggles from the fighting pool and you'll want to take combat jumping for a second set of Zephyr, the LotG +7.5 and the defense boost as well as the immob protection and even an extra Karma -KB.

Slot sets that give global bonuses to accuracy as these will affect your vet powers. Also slot Combat Jumping or Shadow Fall with a Kismet +acc enhancer. The rest of the temp powers cost too much for too little results to be really effective. Getting a seemless procc'd out attack chain is a better way to go.

Not really worth the end cost since DP's AoE damage isn't very good to start with.

Set bonuses. Concentrate on +recovery, +recharge, +acc, and enough ranged defense bonuses to give you about an extra 10% ranged defense. (That will soft cap you against even cons with Darkest Night, Shadow Fall, and Combat Jumping.)

Indeed. I get the 2 names mixed up all the time.

Steamy Mist, Darkest Night, Deflection Shield, and Increase Density also add resistances.

There are other powers that some sets have that also add resistances like:

Force of Nature, One With the Shield, Surge of Power, etc. These are not "reliable" though as they are only useable part of the time.

The Eye of the Magus accolade (which is available to all players) also gives a large amount of resistance and defense but only for a short amount of time on a very long recharge

PFF gives the user extra resistance while it's active.

Go with /Dark for your secondary. T_T lets you keep them in place.