Miladys_Knight

I say that from experience. "Most" of the players that complain about KB (even well controlled KB) are melee oriented.

I'm not talking about a total Noob since a total Noob in either the Energy Blaster's position or the Tanker/Scrapper position are just as bad for the team. I'm talking about a person who has played energy blast at least long enough to have Explosive Blast and learn that unleashing early causes aggro that they can't handle and will get them dead. You are talking about noob mistakes. I'm talking about players that have at least some working knowledge of aggro and the game mechanics.

In my rad's case I retoggle on a new target. I have recharge slotted in my toggles for that reason. Usually it's not a problem as the target is dead rather than merely KB'd on a team of 4 or more.

As opposed to no damage at all coming in from a target that is on their back and can't activate any powers? Chances are I saw that melee oriented toon in trouble and unleashed mass KB to save them.

In my experience this usually isn't the case... Unless the energy blaster failed to slot FOR KB in their blasts. KB provides 2 different forms of mitigation. One that mimics defense the other that mimics resistance.

First is that while a mob is flying and getting up they deal absolutely no damage at all and apply no non-toggle secondary effects to the team. That's 100% damage mitigation. Soft capped defense won't stop 100% of a mob's damage output.

Second is that if the mob has flown far enough they still do no damage for another second or 2 as they switch from melee AI to ranged AI (this is why slotting FOR KB is important. If the mob doesn't fly far enough they don't switch AIs and just jump back into melee). Once they do switch they fire a ranged attack which on average does about 60% of the damage (provided it hits) that most melee attacks do. (That's the equivalent of 40% damage resistance).

Third is that the mob must take a couple more seconds to switch back to melee AI (since most melee favoring mobs only have 1 or 2 ranged powers to use) and then take the time to close the distance, again dealing absolutely no damage during this time. Time in which your friendly Energy/Energy has Torrent or Explosive (or both) ready to go again. That mob or spawn may never get back into melee range with a team member again.

You are right of course but that applies to any blaster (or Squishy) opening up with AoEs before aggro is established. The results will be the same except that the team will survive a bit longer with the spawn on it's back than it will if say a controller opened with an AoE immob or a fire blaster opened with Rain of Fire, Breath of Fire, Fireball, etc.

Against the aggro cap of 16 mobs Explosive Blast followed by Energy Torrent will put, on average, all but 4 mobs on their butts. Power Push makes that all but 3. I don't know about your WP/ tank but mine can handle 3 mobs without RttC. If you are talking about a tank that's exceeded the aggro cap, well that's an entirely different story that's probably going to cause a wipe anyway.

In either case the spawn won't last long enough for the WP player to get much use out of it as tightly packed mobs are prime candidates for an Aim + Build up + Nova. If the blaster takes the time to defiance buff the nuke after popping Aim and Build up, and targets the boss(es) in the spawn, that nuke will leave nothing of the spawn behind except the 5% of all targets that are always missed.

In my experience, most players that don't like KB have either, not taken the time to run the numbers and see just how much (and how good) mitigation from KB is, or they tend to prefer toggle mitigation heavy melee characters and have never tried to level up a squishy toon using only KB for mitigation. There are a few of course that just don't like the KB mechanic.

Well yes, since an invite was extended I expect the team to adapt enough to get maximum benefit from the 8th member of the team. The team would adapt to an Illusion controller why not an energy blaster? My strategy adapts to all the players on the team to maximize effectiveness. I play differently based on what ATs and powers are on the team.

I don't have to PuG, but I still do, it's how you meet new friends.

And there's good melee strategy and bad melee strategy. It shouldn't all fall on the energy blaster's shoulders. It is supposed to be a team after all.

And it would still be a poor way to play even for an extremely experienced player. It was a poor way to play for the AE-PL'd babies especially since now they are out of the AE with level 50 characters that they have no clue how to play. Not all players want to, or are willing to take the time, to soft cap a build. (Believe it or not there are still some players that use nothing but SOs and do just fine.)

As I said before my Energy/Energy/Force runs about 7% defense to all postions and typically outsurvives the scrappers on the team. That's from using KB intelligently and not relying on passive defenses like fighting pool, leadership, and defense set bonuses. (All of which my blaster has avoided)

And I have a problem with this mentality even though it's pretty clear that you focused on this sentence and neglected to read the rest or failed to take it into consideration.

Energy gets a bad rap just because it's energy. I've seen energy blasters get blamed for all KB on teams even when the KB that is being complained about was done by the pets of an illusion controller (these players usually get a pass since "they can't control their pet's KB") or by an assault rifle blaster using Buckshot and M30 Grenade (which are identical powers to Energy Torrent and Explosive Blast except for the FX) and even an Archer's Explosive Arrow.

Let me repeat the important points that you glossed over:

-Bringing a controller along that has an AoE immob power that provides -KB.
-Tanks and Scrappers should fight near walls and other objects instead of in the middle of a huge room that way when you do KB something it flys into the object/wall and doesn't go far.

I have repeatedly herded the newb tank into a corner or near a wall by KBing mobs into piles in those places. The smart ones get it and start fighting near walls and objects where not only is the KB not a problem but increases their survivability by reducing the number of mobs that are in melee with them. The dumb ones whine and get a tell from me about playing smart on a team. Repeated whines costs them their spot on the team.

Asking only the energy blaster to adapt to a team is the same thing as telling the energy blaster not to play. Telling them not to use their AoEs because of the KB, is just depriving your team of that AoE damage.

Most of the energy blasters I have teamed with play smart because of the stigma that is associated with energy blast. In my experience the people that complain about the KB are usually the ones causing the problem because they aren't playing smart and don't take their teamate's powers or secondary effects into consideration. These melee players are typically mid level vets in the 9-15 month range. Those in the 18+ range usually adapt or have played a KB toon of their own and realize the problems that they are creating for themselves.

For me and mine, "if it's flyin' it's dyin'" is my blaster's moto. Usually the complaints that I get aren't that I KB'd the mobs, it's that I killed "their target."

I would disagree. Since the OP is leading pugs the mobs will most likely be woken up by the rest of the team as, or just after, FlashFreeze is being cast. Solo, yes, flashfreeze is good, teamed on a pug.... not so much.

None. Pack a few break frees.

In that case will you please re-revamp PvP so that it's a better team experience and then bring back base raids?

I might actually PvP again and my old Base raiding SG on Freedom might return to the game......

Try it without combat jumping and you'll find that those angles aren't enough slope with just super speed.

I bet you believe that a wino on the street begging for money because he's hungry is actually going to spend it on food and not booze.

Ice/Earth is pretty decent. Open with Ice Slick to mitigate the Alpha, cast Shiver, move in to close range and let Arctic Air take hold, apply Frostbite to keep the mobs in AA and then smash in melee range.

Having made lengthy posts in the past about this subject, and just how uninformed persons that make these posts are, I will endevor to keep my reply short and sweet.

I paid 40 million influence for a set of fairy wings in the first week of I9. A week ago I overpaid and spent 50k.

You are absolutely correct. Our economic science and observations will never be able to compete with your anecdotal voodoo.

I don't call those people lazy, I call them ignorant. They may well be observing things but they are also ignoring what they observe. A rope, a fan, a spear, a tree trunk. Each blind man was certain that he knew exactly what the thing in his hands was but none of them checked any place else. If they had they would have realized it was an elephant's tail, ear, tusk, and leg.

For myself, I made 1.5 billion influence buying common salvage, crafting memorized common IOs, and offering them up on the market for 20% over what it cost me to make them which was still cheaper than anyone that hadn't taken the time to memorize the recipes could have made them for themselves. I've never flipped anything except by accident when the slider was set to 10 for the commons and I accidentally bought a stack of 10 rares when all I needed was one. I've never bought a recipe + salvage, crafted it, then listed it for profit. I've bought salvage, crafted what I got as drops, and sold them usually listing them for ~80% of going rate. I've been doing this since I9. My crafting toon has roughly one billion liquid inf. The SG base that belongs to my wife and I has multiple billions worth of IOs and HOs in storage for our alts all done just by playing the game. You never have to go big ticket and I've started from scratch on 4 different servers with no problems at all.

Now, Get Off My Lawn!

Then you and all players like you are the problem you are ranting about. You could have put in a reasonable or even low bid, ran a mission, and come back in 20 minutes and it would have filled or you may have gotten the piece of salvage that you wanted as a drop. In the same 20-30 minutes in the AE you could have easily earned all the tickets you needed to get even a rare salvage. Is that what you did? No, you paid 50 times what something was worth because you wanted to get it the second you clicked the button like it was a giant vending machine.

Guess who drove up the price? It wasn't a marketeer, it was you. The next "casual" schlub that comes to the market now thinks the over price you paid is the going rate and plunks down the same amount of inf. All that is needed is for that to happen 3 more times and the next 5 then shows a "ZOMG prices on the market are ridiculous" that you can come here and rant about. I'm sorry but you shot yourself in the foot.

Please drive through.

Casual players can use the market. One of the cheapest and effective strategies is franken slotting (Fulmens has written an excellent guide). With a little patience you can get multi-aspect uncommon IOs for your powers that cost less than upper level SOs and never expire. They also increase your performance level much more than 1 or 2 piddly set bonuses do. The secret to set bonuses is stacking multiples of the same type bonus. It's expensive, time consuming, and only slightly more effective than frankenslotting cheap set pieces at least until you've accumulated all the set bonuses you wanted in the early to late level 40s.

Don't let the door hit you in the butt on your way out.

**********************************

To all of you nay sayers:

You don't need the high level PvP parts of the market AT ALL. As an experiment I have leveled 4 characters and saved all my merits earned from story arcs, flashing back, and running task forces. I level locked the toon at 30 for awhile and continued to Flashback and run task forces. Once I accumulated a large pile of merits I made multiple random rolls. I crafted and slotted or stored the pool C recipes I wanted. Crafted and sold the ones I didn't (or deleted the garbage ones).

The time it took me to get all most all the pool C IOs I wanted for my build, then unlock and make the run to level 50 was just a small amount longer than it took to get a toon to level 50 back in I4. In the time that I spent unlocked and going from 30-50 I earned more than enough merits (I had a hundred or so surplus merits) to outright buy the recipes that I didn't get from random rolling at level 30 IN ALL 4 CASES. The recipes and crafted IOs I sold allowed me to put in bids for the pool Bs I needed (virtually all of which filled instantly for a song) and allowed me to make bids on the harder to get pool As. I had more than enough time to let those bids fill while going from 30-50 AND I made it to 50 with every IO I wanted and 500-700 Million inf in spare change.

Lrn 2 Pl4y

Edit - @Nethergoat

Perhaps you should change your forum handle to Nether Scapegoat?

Do I detect....... Sarcasm?

Truth! (both points)

Well yes sort of.

I left red side along time ago mainly due to lack of content and poor Dominator performance. I have a few toons over there but I spend about 1/4 the time there that I used to mainly because market turnover is about that much slower. I get to a certain point and put bids in and log off. (I build to exemplar so I'm kind of picky about what level IOs I buy).

I play again when my xp day job meter is full or my bids have filled.

Bids filling happen 4 times faster blue side so I spend about 4 times as much time there.

Actually you have my point exactly backwards. Profiteering redside is easy because population is low. Combining the markets at its inception would have relieved part of the problem.

I know how to use the market on both sides my problem red side isn't prices its how long goods take to turn over there.

I'm leaving red side permanently for 4 reasons:

1) Low population = low market supply. IOs were supposed to be a way to advance your character post level 50. It takes me rough 3-4 times longer to do this red side compared to blue. Merging the markets would have eliminated this issue.

2) Red side zones are choked with refuse and are hard to travel around unless you fly or leap. My favorite travel power is Super Speed. All the zones red side are unfriendly to my play style especially Grandville.

3) Red side ATs are boring for me for the most part. Brutes are repetative, MM's your computer plays for you. Doms had potential but the revamp didn't really change the major issues for the AT. I can't stand stalkers. Once GR goes live though I may replace all my defenders with corruptors since they have both a higher damage modifier and get scourge.

4) Lack of content. Been through what little there is far too many times (yawn) at least on blue side there is more variety and more selection of TFs (even though longer and more tedious).

What you are experiencing isn't a cause. It's a symptom. There have been lots of things proposed by players that would improve play and population on the redside but so far the devs haven't done any of them and quite frankly many of the things that would make red side more successful aren't feasible.

A classic example is the recent Dom revamp. Yes I know it was called a revamp and it did slightly increase Dom playability though it also made low level dom play a little more tedious. What it actually did was nerf perma and especially double dom. The more I think about it the more that seems to be the case.

In any event the few remaining red side toons I have are moving to blue permanently when GR comes out unless its painful, tedious and probelmatic doing so, in which case I'll be abandoning the red side ATs completely by deleting them and using those character slots for new heroes.

I've long been a proponent of merging the markets there really is no reason not to especially with GR looming on the horizon.