Author Topic: New efforts!  (Read 7212221 times)

brothermutant

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21440 on: December 29, 2015, 03:58:11 PM »
You all got me jonesing for a new defender build. Ran a BUNCH of scenarios on Mids and funny thing was, even without being a def buff type (e.g. FF, Time, Traps), I still got 45%+ defenses from Range and/or Energy/Neg. Trick then was o max out resistances from a type of dmg (besides just S/L), have a couple of control powers, decent debuffs, and a good attack chain (both ST and AoE). Came up with a bunch but the trick to me is something that is fun to play and visually cool as well.

So far, my thoughts were:
 -Dark/Elec/Psi: Got myself decent resists to S/L/and Psi even, self heals, massive debuffs, a good togg that lowers to hit AND dmg (love that one), and a fair amount of defense from E/N/Range (that Defender set with +5% Range defense is HUGE).
 -Storm/Elec/Elec: again, decent resists to S/L/ and Energy this time, and while not the best in debuffing (it did have sleet at least), it had huge dmg with those Tornado and Storm powers. Plus, it worked for me as a thematic build.
 -Cold/Ice/Levi: This one sounded pretty dam cool to me too. High resists to S/L/ and Cold of all things, 42%+ defenses from stuff that would matter to me (E/N/F/C/Range/AoE), HUGE debuffer (even if it is mostly single target), and I get like three AoEs (counting Blizzard because I never minded its crash; I cast it near my feet so everyone near me scattered).

The one thing I feel is missing from these is a Pet. I liked having a pet around to do some extra dmg as well as to take some heat off of me. Fluffy from the Dark set doesn't count, he dies too fast imho. So, that would mean I take one from one of the PPPs: corrolax, Spiderbot (but won't as it doesn't give me a resistance toggle), Mu floaty guy, or the widow? So that would mean I want a primary that buffs my personal resistance to either Cold, Energy, or Negative+Toxic. Any thoughts? Cold Dom and Storm works for the first two, Dark for energy and neg, sonic for any really but Sonic really doesn't do it for me. I never got to try Nature Affinity enough to really decide if I liked it.

blacksly

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21441 on: December 29, 2015, 05:02:50 PM »
I'm gonna have to start setting up a bookmark system for posts like these.

No need, the message board has set one up for you already. Just click on Arcana's name and look for prior posts. :p

blacksly

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21442 on: December 29, 2015, 05:04:53 PM »
2016 closing i  fast. Is there any better chance the game is coming back that year? Is there Anything pointing at that?

My Magic 8-Ball said something about it, but it was largely unclear.

Kelltick

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21443 on: December 29, 2015, 05:48:27 PM »
-Storm/Elec/Elec: again, decent resists to S/L/ and Energy this time, and while not the best in debuffing (it did have sleet at least), it had huge dmg with those Tornado and Storm powers. Plus, it worked for me as a thematic build.

Mind posting this build?  Would like to take a gander at it.  :)

brothermutant

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21444 on: December 29, 2015, 06:00:28 PM »
Mind posting this build?  Would like to take a gander at it.  :)
Here ya be. Let me know what you would change and why please.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.96
http://www.cohplanner.com/

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Elec Team 3: Level 50 Mutation Defender
Primary Power Set: Storm Summoning
Secondary Power Set: Electrical Blast
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Electricity Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: O2 Boost -- Numna-Heal/EndRdx(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(3)
Level 1: Charged Bolts -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Dev'n-Dmg/EndRdx(5), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7), Dev'n-Hold%(7)
Level 2: Lightning Bolt -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(9), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(9), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(11), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13)
Level 4: Ball Lightning -- Ragnrk-Knock%(A), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(17), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(19), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(19)
Level 6: Steamy Mist -- HO:Cyto(A), HO:Cyto(21), HO:Ribo(21), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(23)
Level 8: Freezing Rain -- Det'tn-Dmg/Rng(A), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx(23), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(25), UndDef-DefDeb/Rchg(25), UndDef-Rchg/EndRdx(27), UndDef-DefDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(27)
Level 10: Short Circuit -- Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(A), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg(29), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(29)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- SW-ResDam/Re TP(A), SW-Def/EndRdx(31)
Level 14: Boxing -- Acc-I(A)
Level 16: Aim -- AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(A), AdjTgt-Rchg(31), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 18: Tough -- GA-3defTpProc(A), GA-ResDam(31), GA-End/Res(33)
Level 20: Zapp -- Mantic-Acc/Dmg(A), Mantic-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Mantic-Acc/ActRdx/Rng(33), Mantic-Dmg/ActRdx/Rchg(34), Mantic-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Mantic-Dam%(34)
Level 22: Weave -- HO:Cyto(A), HO:Cyto(36), HO:Cyto(36)
Level 24: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(36)
Level 26: Tornado -- OvForce-Acc/Dmg(A), OvForce-Dmg/End/Rech(37), OvForce-Acc/Dmg/End/Rech(37), OvForce-End/Rech(37), OvForce-Dam/KB(39)
Level 28: Tesla Cage -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(39)
Level 30: Acrobatics -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(39)
Level 32: Lightning Storm -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(40), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(40), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42)
Level 35: Thunder Strike -- Erad-Acc/Rchg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), Erad-Dmg(43)
Level 38: Electric Fence -- GravAnch-Acc/Immob/Rchg(A), GravAnch-Acc/Rchg(43), GravAnch-Immob/EndRdx(50), GravAnch-Hold%(50)
Level 41: Charged Armor -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(45), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(45)
Level 44: Thunderous Blast -- SDefendersB-Acc/Dmg(A), SDefendersB-Dmg/Rchg(45), SDefendersB-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46), SDefendersB-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(46), SDefendersB-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46), SDefendersB-Rchg/Heal%(48)
Level 47: Power Sink -- Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(A), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(48), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(48)
Level 49: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Clrty-Stlth(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(13), Numna-Heal(15)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(15), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(17)
Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve
Level 0: Portal Jockey
Level 0: Task Force Commander
Level 0: The Atlas Medallion
------------




Stitchified

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21445 on: December 29, 2015, 07:13:51 PM »
My favorite AT combination will always be that of a Energy/Energy Blaster... I have too many pleasant memories of Energy/Energy Blasters, mostly that of watching my father play his before making my own :)

LaughingAlex

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21446 on: December 29, 2015, 07:31:51 PM »
Funnily enough, I'm finding that in some circumstances in NW you can break the holy trinity in ways akin to CoH.

I play a "healer", but I don't heal much. What I do is closer to a CoH kin. NW uses the 4ED&D system of at will/encounter/daily powers. I basically cause everybody's dailies to recharge much faster. This means that a paladin tank can keep a power permanent that means he absorbs all damage from the rest of the party. If he's "slotted for recharge" he can also recharge a power that gives him a bucketload of temp hits fast enough to survive this.

Also finding that quite a lot of instanced content doesn't need a tank or healer and is faster with 5 DPS.

I often hear similar, though as much as I'd like to try Neverwinter out, I can never bring myself to touch them after cryptic north and later cryptic studios have done to CO.  I'd even worry for non trinity tactics due to the "nerf any tactic we dislike and we get our way every time" crowd.
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Abraxus

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21447 on: December 29, 2015, 08:06:19 PM »
My favorite AT combination will always be that of a Energy/Energy Blaster... I have too many pleasant memories of Energy/Energy Blasters, mostly that of watching my father play his before making my own :)

I played an Energy/Energy Blaster (pictured in my avatar), and my younger son used to watch me play for hours, until he was old enough for his own account.

Wait...you are not my son...right?  ;)
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Arcana

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21448 on: December 29, 2015, 08:09:34 PM »
My favorite AT combination will always be that of a Energy/Energy Blaster... I have too many pleasant memories of Energy/Energy Blasters, mostly that of watching my father play his before making my own :)

I honestly believe En/En had the most diverse set of playability options of any blaster, and I basically played all of them over time.  I started as a straight up ranged blaster, which it does fairly well because the knockback mitigation makes that play viable.  Also, I didn't even *know* DE had mez until long after I started playing, because when you're shooting them from 40 to 80 feet away with a lot of knock they usually don't have the chance to mez you.  Its a good blapper combination and I got into blapping fairly early, circa Issue 1. Sonic/Electric might be a better blapper, but En/En is right up there, and power boost makes your blapper stuns go from good to awesome.  Of course I played hybrid for a while.  With enough HOs or later IOs you can play Energy as an AoE-focused blaster as long as you learn to control your AoE - hover blasting helps a lot here because while people argue about whether knockback is good or not in general, everyone agrees knockback that blasts the targets straight downward into the ground is always awesome.  If you can spam Explosive Blast and torrent from above down onto spawns and then pick off prone targets with single blasts you can make that very successful.

Then there are exotic playstyles.  With range boost you can be the ultimate long range sniper, sniping from practically beyond visual range and letting normal blasts hit from sniper range.  If you want to play 1v1 keep away you can do awesome things.  I learned to pull apart the four boss spawns in PI using long range pseudo snipes.  Single pulling a boss and then stun blapping them, and then repeating to take down boss clusters in PI is an interesting way to make a living.  And doing that from above with the death mages in the portal courtyard is also easy money. 

I24 was going to be all kinds of fun.  Power boost + Energize.  En/En wasn't I think the best at anything, but it was pretty good at a whole lot of things.

pinballdave

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21449 on: December 29, 2015, 09:21:34 PM »
That's the trick, but I thought they removed that trick after a fashion? Or am I remembering wrong, I stopped being a bubbler awhile ago as no one but my SG wanted his help, and even that was only in rare cases (PLing was one of them).

They tried to get rid of the doubling, but with mastermind pets, resummons, equips and upgrades, they couldn't do it without crushing the hopes of masterminds everywhere.

My bubbler came back into vogue with PuGs running +4 radio missions in PI. When the nemmies or the Malta showed up, most experienced groups craved that extra defense and endurance drain protection.

scope.creep

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21450 on: December 29, 2015, 09:23:36 PM »
My first blaster 50 was En/En.  It would have been my first 50 overall except my SG started up an all-radiation group that flew to 50.

With my En/En blaster in the 30s and 40s , I did a lot of soloing.  I figured out that /En was a set of beauty and destruction.  I had ignored a lot of the melee attacks at first, but once I got a taste for blapping, I preferred melee attacks to ranged.  Plus, Nova was PBAOE anyway...  So much fun.  ;)

pinballdave

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21451 on: December 29, 2015, 09:41:35 PM »
Here ya be. Let me know what you would change and why please.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.96
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Elec Team 3: Level 50 Mutation Defender
Primary Power Set: Storm Summoning
Secondary Power Set: Electrical Blast
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Electricity Mastery

Hero Profile:<snip>

For a long time I skipped Gale, until I had a mastermind :p But I learned its utility. Sadly I cannot wax as poetic as The Mighty Storm did, but gale is a placement tool. If you used torrent on an energy blaster, I think you can empathize with its use. Gale doesn't have a 'check' where the target gets off a shot before it hits them. In this way you get the knockdown mitigation where the target cannot hit you until it gets back up. Specifically, this gives you time to drop freezing rain so they don't have much chance to stand at all. I would request Arcana to list the abilities that don't have a defensive check before affecting the targets. Howling Twilight is another such activation if I recall correctly.

So knock em down, freezing rain them, and hit them with the super under-appreciated slow in snowstorm, and even if they still have a good portion of health, they can't fight back well, at all. This is debuff mitigation without assessing the buff strength of fighting or steamy mist.

Arcana

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21452 on: December 29, 2015, 10:11:35 PM »
I would request Arcana to list the abilities that don't have a defensive check before affecting the targets.

If I understand what you're suggesting, its not that some powers allow foes to act before affecting them, its that many powers have deliberate delayed effects sometimes to simulate "projectile speed" or to synchronize them to approximate when the visual fx appears to land on the target or for other design reasons.  If an attack applies some debilitating effect more or less instantly like knockback, the foe won't get a chance to act before its affected.  If the attack "hits" the target but the key effect that temporarily roots or otherwise neutralizes the foe lands significantly after the attack activates the foe can sometimes get a chance to launch an attack first.

Also, simplifying a bit, enemies can only attack you if they "notice" you, and there are rules for that.  Some powers are explicitly flagged to not be "noticed" like say Deceive.  That's in part how you're allowed to stack it up on a foe with confuse protection to confuse them without them attacking you back.  They don't "notice" the power hitting them, even though its stacking up through their protection.  Of course, they can still *see* you if you're dumb enough to stand in front of them while you're casting Deceive.

pinballdave

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21453 on: December 29, 2015, 10:59:31 PM »
If I understand what you're suggesting, its not that some powers allow foes to act before affecting them, its that many powers have deliberate delayed effects sometimes to simulate "projectile speed" or to synchronize them to approximate when the visual fx appears to land on the target or for other design reasons.  If an attack applies some debilitating effect more or less instantly like knockback, the foe won't get a chance to act before its affected.  If the attack "hits" the target but the key effect that temporarily roots or otherwise neutralizes the foe lands significantly after the attack activates the foe can sometimes get a chance to launch an attack first.

Also, simplifying a bit, enemies can only attack you if they "notice" you, and there are rules for that.  Some powers are explicitly flagged to not be "noticed" like say Deceive.  That's in part how you're allowed to stack it up on a foe with confuse protection to confuse them without them attacking you back.  They don't "notice" the power hitting them, even though its stacking up through their protection.  Of course, they can still *see* you if you're dumb enough to stand in front of them while you're casting Deceive.

My empirical observation, amature as it may be, is that some abilities that affected a target's ability to respond would not be interrupted by a defensive ability of the target.

I looked at a few of my favorites:

Howling pet of Howling Twilight _never_ notifies the targets - that's the rez portion. The caster activation for the debuffs does notify the targets. Cast time is 3.17 seconds. Yet, it seems like there is rare counterstrike during the casting.

Gale always notifies. The cast time is 2.17 seconds. That seems like it allows a long time for a counterstrike.

Freezing rain is knock down. It always notifies. The cast time is 2.03 seconds. A storm can catch a lot of heat casting Freezing Rain on a group. The pet takes 0.2 seconds to cast. AHA! knockback  of .1 knockback chance of 5%

Liquefy is fraught with danger to activate while soloing. Always it's notified. D'oh again 3% chance of knockback.

The notification is like all powers from stealth of steamy mist or shadow fall. Notification applies once the power is activated.

brothermutant

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21454 on: December 29, 2015, 11:34:19 PM »
Wasn't it the fact that damage was there for those moves,or/and the range was (usually) less than 80 feet, which most baddies had at least one or two powers that had a range of 80 feet or less?

I always thought the lack of damage was the way to go in case it missed.

HEATSTROKE

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21455 on: December 30, 2015, 04:51:37 AM »
I honestly believe En/En had the most diverse set of playability options of any blaster

Yup

Quote
   I started as a straight up ranged blaster, which it does fairly well because the knockback mitigation makes that play viable. 

Yup

Quote
Its a good blapper combination and power boost makes your blapper stuns go from good to awesome.

Yup.. or as I used to say before laying the smackdown.. Welcome to the land of STUN buddy

Quote
Hover blasting helps a lot here because while people argue about whether knockback is good or not in general, everyone agrees knockback that blasts the targets straight downward into the ground is always awesome. 

And some of us silly people three slotted hover and swift to take advantage of this very thing


Quote
Then there are exotic playstyles.  With range boost you can be the ultimate long range sniper, sniping from practically beyond visual range and letting normal blasts hit from sniper range.

And if you wanted to be really nasty;.. put three Damage Range Hami's into PowerPush and keep a foe at a distance FOREVER and snipe him to oblivion.. and if your hovering while doing it.. even better...


Quote
I24 was going to be all kinds of fun.  Power boost + Energize.

Oh yeah. I was gonna Perma Energize big time.. and then there was instant snipe.. yay..


Codewalker

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21456 on: December 30, 2015, 05:35:23 AM »
My empirical observation, amature as it may be, is that some abilities that affected a target's ability to respond would not be interrupted by a defensive ability of the target.

A power can either notify or not notify, there are no in between options. Most powers that deal damage or debuff notify, with a few rare exceptions (mostly confuse or sleep powers that do not have any other effect).

"Cast time" is usually irrelevant. Powers that notify do so using the 'hit' delay to wake up the AI at the instant that the effect lands. The hit delay is usually set to sync up with the animation, so it's less than the total activation time but greater than 0. That includes projectile delay, which is based on the distance to the target when the power is activated and gets added to the hit delay.

AI notify for a *miss* on the other hand, happens immediately upon power activation and does not get delayed. I can only guess this is because the delay is a property of attribmods, so hits notify the AI when the attached attribmod is first processed, while misses never attach anything so they have to notify up front -- the power activation is finished immediately. This is very likely the same reason that misses in the to-hit roll channel show up immediately, while hit messages are delayed to sync up with the actual hit. If I were designing the system from scratch, I'd probably include some sort of delayed combat event system to address this rather than piggybacking it on attribmods.

Almost all of the powers that you listed are pseudopet summons. All bets are off with those, because each pet may be implemented differently. The summon itself usually doesn't notify, but the pet may have autopowers that begin pulsing immediately. Freezing rain has damage ticks, liquefy applies its defense debuff, etc. Howling twilight probably feels safer because the notify coincides with applying a mag 2 stun, so only lieutenants and bosses fire back.
« Last Edit: December 30, 2015, 05:41:52 AM by Codewalker »

Arcana

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21457 on: December 30, 2015, 06:06:45 AM »
"Cast time" is usually irrelevant.

I should have mentioned this.  Technically speaking, cast time is the amount of time the game engine should pause before starting the recharge of the power.  That's it.  It literally doesn't do anything else that players would ordinarily notice, with one exception listed below.  Almost everything players associate with cast time is actually something else, and only appears to be related to cast time because the developers ensure those other things reflect what cast time is set to.

For example, the biggie: how long after you execute a power before you can execute another power?  Trick question.  *Two* things need to be true before you can execute another power.  First, cast time must be expired.  You can't execute another power until the cast time of the previous power expires.  But actually, you *also* cannot be currently executing an uninterruptible rooted animation.  Power animations can "root" you which means you can't take any actions while they are playing.  Its actually the rooted time that usually determined how long before you could act again because whatever cast time is set to animations have to play in whole frames.  There was really no actual way for a power to take "1,17 seconds" to execute.  The devs were *supposed* to make animations essentially root for about the same amount of time as the cast time of the power, but until someone came along that could audit that, there were a lot of discrepancies.

Although I had actually considered gaming the system very early on**, this fact wasn't actually fully exploited by the devs until Titan Weapons.  TW exploits the fact that the cast time of a power can actually be set to *zero* and then the actual speed of the power can then be determined by the animation.  Cast time cannot be changed on the fly, but animations can be (that's in part how custom animations work).  Titan Weapons have a slow mode and a fast mode, and the fast mode plays faster animations that root for less time, allowing the player to activate attacks quicker in sequence.

The fact that how long powers take to execute in practice was more a function of the way the animations were constructed than cast time created some really weird situations, including what I consider to be my Most Whacked Bug Ever Found***: in a significant percentage of certain kinds of melee attacks females swung slower than males, meaning your gender could actually affect your DPS.  That was because the cast time was identical regardless of your character gender, but the animations were not.  At the beginning of time, many attacks had "girl animations" created which persisted long into the game, and they were not identical to the male ones.  Also, believe it or not, flying melee characters suffered from a similar bizarro damage debuff for similar reasons with some powers.

"Cast time" ranks way up there on the list of "things that don't mean what almost anyone thinks it means" in City of Heroes.  Its up there with "Damage Resistance" and "Accuracy."


** For martial arts, of course

*** Because the auditor that came along was me

Solitaire

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21458 on: December 30, 2015, 11:24:25 AM »
My favorite AT combination will always be that of a Energy/Energy Blaster... I have too many pleasant memories of Energy/Energy Blasters, mostly that of watching my father play his before making my own :)

Had a Nrg/Nrg Blaster would team with my friends and have a blast with what we called the Nova Bomb, hover, wait for tank to herd mob, then drop Enrage Insp's, Aim & Build Up then turn off hover drop in the middle of mob and use Nova.... Hence Nova Bomb!  :D

Azrael

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Re: New efforts!
« Reply #21459 on: December 30, 2015, 02:10:42 PM »
Quote
Oh yeah. I was gonna Perma Energize big time.. and then there was instant snipe.. yay..

Perma Energize.  Wistful sigh.*  With a turbo IO/Hasten build.  The good thing about such a fast build.  If the knock back roll misses for some of the mob...torrent should be able to tick around quick enough to 'get them again' and catch the rest of the skittles.  And Perma Energize would help fuel that.  I found my 'build' never felt right after Ed.  The slowing down of the build made it not only less fun but less able to turn the attacks to how I'd gotten used to them. 

That's what I liked about my pre-ED En/En build.  High octane. :)  But I guess a really good IO build could be another level of magnitude above that with probably end/health and some meZ(?) to help mitigate en/en's thirstiness.  Certainly, it looked like issue 24 was going to be a blaster's salvation in that dept.

I remember thinking my brute had that 'Energize' as part of it's armoury.  It would have been great for blaster's to have had that.  They get it and then the game closes down. :P  (I would occasionally 'bemoan' how some of the 'types' seem to get an excess of riches while some seemed to get the 'crumbs' treatment.  And I played across most types.)

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Had a Nrg/Nrg Blaster would team with my friends and have a blast with what we called the Nova Bomb, hover, wait for tank to herd mob, then drop Enrage Insp's, Aim & Build Up then turn off hover drop in the middle of mob and use Nova.... Hence Nova Bomb!  :D

Sounds like a bag full of fun.  The energy nova was certainly emphatic!  Good tactic their.  Dive bombing Nova on the Tank's herd. :D  That was the thing about En/En Nova.  You could get 'slapped' out of a mob as your Nova exploded in mid-air.  Always embarrassing.  So making sure a tank 'had it' was always good.  Soloing, Elec and Ice blasters could 'place' their novas.  Very advantageous. :)

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And some of us silly people three slotted hover and swift to take advantage of this very thing

Silly?  I used to always x2 slot swift to close down to melee after a blast or AoE so I could blap.  I was always shy of x3 slotting it.  (slots were always at a premium...)  But that 'extra' turn of pace always makes sense.  If an enemy is off their feet, close the gap quicker to land the killing blow.  x2 slotting Hover, minimum, on my Defender made sense as I did 'hover' blasting on my FF/En.  x3 on the Hover worked even better...it just gave that extra turn of pace.   

((It was great playing ping pong with force bolt (was it?) which almost seemed to have an auto-hit to it... (well, it did no damage...but it was great for keeping a foe off their feet!  Once slot with an acc in it seemed to do the trick.))

My 'ears' pricked up when there was some 'en/en' blaster talk.  My favourite and 1st L50 blaster until later superseded by an Elec/Elec Domi.  This thread has given me one or two ideas regarding build, tactics, slotting refinement when the game comes back. ;)

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and then there was instant snipe..

Bit of a strange thing the snipe...and novas.  I can see the design idea.  Made sense in the early days.  In the end, they weren't worth the down time.  Or the 'waiting' around.  So to speed them up aka a rinse and repeat nova with no end crash made much more sense in the Water Blaster...as a preview of Issue 24.  Transformative.  It gave the 'blaster' their 'nova' back. 

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And if you wanted to be really nasty;.. put three Damage Range Hami's into PowerPush and keep a foe at a distance FOREVER and snipe him to oblivion.. and if your hovering while doing it.. even better...

The classic Powerpush and Snipe combo. :D 

Add 'Snipe' becoming an 'Insta-Snipe' makes into that cocktail sounds bags of fun and makes much more sense when we thing what Blaster or ScRapper can do with the 'wait' time on a Snipe.  You can exceed the damage quite easily...without the design kludge of being 'nudged' off your snipe to add to your woes.  Having an Insta Snipe...makes more sense with a 'quick' damaging Blaster type.  Why slow it down with a pregnant pause blast?  Sounds counter to the blaster's remit.  On a high octane turbo build one can only wonder how you could pound a boss with a vastly speeded up snipe attack!  'Exotic.'  Indeed.  Gives the 'blaster' back one of its heavy attacks and makes the type more aggressive once more.  Very 'hot house.' :P

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I honestly believe En/En had the most diverse set of playability options of any blaster

*thinks.  I didn't enjoy my Sonic/En blaster solo as much.  Felt very stilted by comparison.  My ice blaster felt very hold, kill...very silky.  I didn't use the ice mat quite as much for blapping as perhaps I could or should have.  Maybe it was the end cost of the icy aura 'chill' that stopped me getting in and mixing it in that fashion.

Energy felt more expansive.  Free-er.  Smoother.  Progressively and expansively designed.  eg.  Blapping.  Blast some and knock themover.  x2 or x3 slotted swift to close the gap.  Energy punch.  Bone Smasher.  And Power/Energy thrust them.  Close to finish with Bonesmasher.  Or any combo of.

I'm not sure if anyone else thought of Exploding Blast as a 'blap' power.  However, I do remember reading on the official forums, a tactic of pulling a mob to a corner...then putting an exploding blast into the lead mob and blitzing them off their feet...then torrent them and clean up with melee attacks.  It was counter to leading with Torrent.  I tried it.  Kinda worked.  But you were in for it if the 'knock' roll failed.  I was one for making some long charging attacks AOE like that 'auto knock.'  Especially from close range.

Energy had a great set of melee and blast options.  Plus the extensible long blast and close melee protection and utility of Power Push and Energy Thrust.  You had a snipe.  A nova.  Situational powers.  You could extend your knock back and stun 2ndary effects with Power Boost with a nice rainbow aura... :D  Yes.  You had the stun.  A massive Boo-a-shakka in Total Focus.  Boost aim and damage.  Boost range was an excellent utility to help push shorter range AoE like Torrent further and your snipe onto another planet.  Blast was what I did first.  Then I went went.  It's hard to explain why I got ultimately disenchanted with Energy.  Was it the 'not much use' Personal Force Field in the FON set?  Was it post Ed and the removal of my beloved Perma-Hasten (probably.  That stung.  I didn't play it much after that.) 

In later times.  Revisiting it.  Energy didn't seem to 'hit as hard' as other blast sets.  And the knock back mitigation higher up in the game seemed didn't seem to help against the very well endowed with buffs Arachnos mobs or Carnie or Malta.  I'd got out the habit of using range and knock back and was hybrid blapping AoE with melee.  Often with predictable results. ;)  Though I did work hard to stun and total F(!) a Nemesis or War Hulk upon occasion.  Powerboost could keep them cuckoo for a while. :)  I found them hard to split up.  But I'll use Arcana's tactic with the snipe next time...

I think playing other types, short of an IO build (which I never did for a blaster....), I found I could push the Blaster as far on the Diff/mob width settings.  I found that disenchanting as well.

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I honestly believe En/En had the most diverse set of playability options of any blaster, and I basically played all of them over time.  I started as a straight up ranged blaster, which it does fairly well because the knockback mitigation makes that play viable.  Also, I didn't even *know* DE had mez until long after I started playing, because when you're shooting them from 40 to 80 feet away with a lot of knock they usually don't have the chance to mez you.  Its a good blapper combination and I got into blapping fairly early, circa Issue 1. Sonic/Electric might be a better blapper, but En/En is right up there, and power boost makes your blapper stuns go from good to awesome.  Of course I played hybrid for a while.  With enough HOs or later IOs you can play Energy as an AoE-focused blaster as long as you learn to control your AoE - hover blasting helps

Which is the best Blapper?  Fighting talk from Arcana.  Hmm.  I'd have sworn blind it was an En/En blaster right up until I met my Elec/Elec Dominator. 

You mention Sonic/Elec.  Telling.  You didn't say, 'Sonic/Energy.'

My Duo-Partner (we tried out a fair few combos... :D )  and I went for gold with a Sonic/Elec (he had that one...) and I went with Sonic/En.  We melted our mobs with Sonic's one two punch of the 1st two primary attacks.  Silky smooth and set up the mob up for a butter punch.

After that?  En/En just felt...'hard work' to hit the mob into submission.  After a one two blast of sonic...orange mobs would see their health bar melt...and the mob felt like butter with the melee punch.  I guess their 'res' was melted with sonic...which made the melee punch hit so hard.

About 35 levels we did that.  I have to grudgingly admit that Elec seemed the better blapper than energy.  Not sure why.  For a very smooth set, elec seemed to even out smooth it.  It seemed a shade quicker or smoother.  I'm not sure what it was.  Elec had a hold.  En had Energy Thrust.  Elec had Havoc Punch while En had Energy Punch.  Elec had Thunderstrike.  En had Bonesmasher...and Total Focus (I think Elec had 'shocking grasp?')

I think Sonic was definitely more damage primary to set up the blapping 2ndary.  Though I'd argue not as much fun as Energy.  Ice was a lethal blap set.  Well.  Control.  Blast.  Blap set.

So my dam list would be...in terms of what felt damage or efficient.

1. Sonic/Elec.
2. Sonic/Energy.
3. Ice/Ice.
4. Elec/Elec.
5. En/Energy.


That would be my top 5 as damaging blappers.  En as low as no.5?  Surely no.3?


Fun list?

1. Elec/Elec (I didn't get my Elec Blaster to beyond L38, but does my Elec Dominator count! :D )
2. Energy/Energy.
3. Ice/Ice
4. Elec/Elec.
5. Sonic En.

All minus IOs.  (well, apart from my Domi 'blap/scrap/blaster'...)

Fire?  Too much death (mine) to make the list.  And where was fire fist?  We had the 'distant' fwassh of the fire sword instead.  Never seemed to 'connect' for me.

Azrael.

PS.  And the elec dominator had so much utility or ways to 'pull the legs off a spider.'  I went for dominator over blaster for elec/en in much the same way as I went for Ice blaster after my controller ice/rad experience...

One had more utility to survive...and a mix of options for mitigation which made knock back frustratingly random.  While Ice blaster was more direct.  Hold.  Blast.  Your dead.  A troller with teeth.
« Last Edit: December 30, 2015, 03:10:02 PM by Azrael »