MindOverMatter

Per the title, neither of these powers currently grant a stack of Assassin's Focus. Please review. Credit @Ston for noticing Savage Leap was missing the stack tag.

Storm Blast quick thoughts: Storm Cell Mechanic: I can appreciate the ramp-up of damage and mitigation effects when used with other Storm Blast powers, however I experienced some trade-offs around unpredictable damage leading to overkill (happens when a lightning aura strike defeats an enemy as you execute a separate attack) which contributes to higher endurance use (both upfront cost to keep Storm Cell up to maximize the mechanic for better mitigation/damage and the cost to use more attacks to generate lightning strikes from Storm Cell via other attacks) Recommendation: Returning endurance (even a small amount) to the player when they attack an enemy currently under the Storm Cell effect. Yes, this is similar to what Electric Blast does - however it is limited to only supporting the Fury-like mechanic of Storm Cell's interplay with other Storm Blast attacks. Aesthetics: Excellent FXs work here, from the rains in storm cell to even the sad cloud burst raining on someone's day. Notes from Solo Testing on a Sentinels: Level 1-13 - Early levels are straightforward, but the endurance sink of Storm Cell is significant. Early on, the need for more damage pushes use of Storm Cell and spamming low cost attacks - and the payoff is unpredictable but endurance-hungry. I hesitate to recommend swapping the order for a single-target staple like Lightning Strike/Snipe to support ST damage, because I am still just as hungry for endurance by the time Lightning Strike/Snipe was available. Level 20-30 - Enemies are getting tougher and the need to also slot for accuracy means the tradeoffs of end redux/damage/recharge with limited slotting is even more pronounced. When Storm Cell is down, I find myself waiting a beat before engaging groups to allow it to recharge, cast, and pause to recover some of the endurance expenditure before jumping in. This would be a more meaningful decision if I weren't wasting Storm Cell duration or being pressed for endurance management simply to utilize the set's core mechanic Mid-Late Game: More slots helps with managing endurance (as well as various endurance powers granted by the Sentinel Secondaries) - curious about how the thirsty endurance maintenance impacts non-Sentinels and Blasters (since those ATs typically have sustains in their secondaries) Tested using: /Radiation Armor (Yeah, Radiation Armor is great, even with the +Absorb override issue in Particle Shielding) and /Dark Armor (so much potential and so little Regen Debuff Resistance/HP).

The War Mace custom option named "Celestial Mace" currently is the same model as the "Celestial Axe" used in Battle Axe - only reversed. See below: (Celestial Mace) versus (Celestial Axe) While I am unsure what design constraints/choices went into this choice, the result is a somewhat awkward Hammer with a significantly longer bladed back than blunted hammer. Is it possible to adjust the size of the blunt portion of the Celestial Mace and reduce the bladed portion? Preferably, the design would retain the ornate celestial pattern yet swap sides it to ensure that the larger design aspect is now covering the front blunt area for the Celestial Mace. I propose that the resizing produce a hammer with blunted/blade ratios similar to the Rularuu's Fury mace option. If folks would still like to keep the current style of the "Celestial Mace," they could have that option as too.

Feedback here has been sparse, but I wanted to share some preliminary thoughts from testing and reflection on Sonic Manipulation that may spur some additional testing and encourage folks taking another look. First up, some thoughts on what I feel defines the set: a mechanic that provides the potential to stack holds, a slightly weaker Build-Up that also boosts Mez strength, an AoE toggle -Res that supports being in or just outside of melee damage (more on this in a moment), and a T1 (Sonic Thrust) that marries the KB strength of Power Thrust with the Repel certainty of Ki Push. Otherwise, the set is energy/smashing and has some standard cone and pbaoe action that on the surface aren't particularly striking and reflects a rounded mix of incentives to be in melee blapping or at least melee adjacent with a T1 design to send a target effectively out of that radius rather soundly. Because puns. This provides some clear value for those used to mixing in some blapping and moving in and out of melee range regularly. For everyone else though, the set may encourage a particular playstyle to maximize some of those defining features. Here's where I would encourage some differentiated thinking for the ranged-only Blaster folks: hover-blasting with Disruption Aura. Hover-blasting is a common, reliable way to obtain some safety whilst unloading with standard ranged attacks *and* obtaining positioning to better leverage cones Hover-blasting with Disruption Aura means that now your love of your ranged attack rotation is amplified by 14% more damage You are providing debuffs for the team and can manage your proximity to a hard target while remaining somewhat safe from melee and PBAoes If you Auto Sonic Thrust, you can forcefully smack down any enemies that have the audacity to jump towards you whilst you unload your ranged arsenal. If you love being at range, try it. Build for ranged defense and hover-blast. Share what you've experienced. I'm not saying that is sufficient identity for Sonic Manipulation, however it does offer something for those who prefer not to Blap. Yes, there is also mez-boosting/hold-stacking potential that exists in this set. However, unreliable controls for a Blaster may prove more of a nice-to-have than a consistent draw to the set.

Just checked this again in-game and confirmed with Bopper that while the recovery is flagged to Ignore level differences, the regeneration in Touch of the Beyond is not flagged to ignore. Is this WAI?

Comparing Strength of Blaster Sustain Values Across Secondaries Are blaster secondary survival/sustain powers intended to provide varying strength when compared to secondaries offering the same type of sustain (Regen/absorb/etc)? More specifically, is the consistent regeneration value provided by self-toggles such as Field Operative supposed to match the currently variable regeneration buff from Touch of the Beyond? For context, Field Operative’s regen values do not diminish in strength when used against a higher level foe. It is self-contained. Touch of the Beyond’s regen values are still (as of this Beta) impacted by enemy level. Thus, TotB performs significantly weaker when used against higher-level foes. As a caveat, I recognize that Drain Psyche is an outlier for comparative metrics. Drain Psyche, however, has a lower base value and higher performance ceiling based on number of targets.

This bug appears in a number of other places as well, including the Blaster > Darkness Manipulation ability Touch of the Beyond. Sadly for Darkness Manipulation, the impact of this bug severely weakened the secondary against harder enemies. It may be time for a thread collecting all instances to help the Devs diagnose the underlying issue.

Just bumping this bug report. I recognize that there may be few who take the Soul Mastery Patron pool but the odd Scaling damage to self may be linked to another scaling bug for blasters: the Darkness Manipulation > Touch of the Beyond. In the case of Touch of the Beyond, higher level enemies provide less Regen from activation (making the sustain far less potent than its counterparts in the other blaster secondaries) while lower level enemies provide enough Regen to cap the player.

Apparently, this bug has been going on for some time. It seems to be linked to a zoning issue and may need more folks calling this out in the Bugs Thread to investigate further.

I’m curious if you would be better suited using the /Devices on a blaster. You’ll get Smoke Grenade and a cloaking device as well as other gadgetry that could be useful in your stealthy pursuits.

We simply abandoned the TF at that point. Will try again another time.

Thanks for that clarification!

Hey Captain Powerhouse, glad that you responded. While I recognize the Homecoming changes are in the spirit of Gather Shadows, my original comment referred to how these new variants of Gather Shadows lack the option to enhance with ToHit Enhancement sets. I specifically named "Power Build Up", as the Defender Power Mastery Epic Power existed before Dark Assault - yet it could be enhanced with ToHit Sets. I'm simply asking if these similar powers including Gather Shadows (+Damage/special booster including +ToHit) could now *all* have the ability to be enhanced with sets. If not, I was curious if there was a design intention behind restricting sets.

Now that Power Boost has been changed to Power Build Up for Doms, can these abilities be coded to accept ToHit Buff sets? Currently, Earth Assault’s version is not accepting sets. I am uncertain if that is by design or otherwise.

I just want to provide a few quick notes in favor of Smoke Grenade. It's an amazing ability for a number of factors. [*]It's an unresistable ToHit Debuff. That's makes it a reliable source of debuff for an entire mob for 1 minute. [*]It recharges quickly and is cheap on endurance. [*]Did I mention it was enhanceable? Because it is. This means you can squeeze out around 6% -ToHit to your foes and better protect yourself and allies. [*]The negative perception helps with aggro management. Blinding your foes is one of the most signature elements to the Night Widow combat experience. YMMV though.