Stormwalker

I do like the idea of being able to go into a zone, grab radio missions, be automatically exemp'd down to an appropriate level for that zone, and run them that way. That would be a cool option to have.

I swear I remember arguments on the forums about it, though. Specifically complaining that it had uncontrollable knockback and needed to be changed. Oh, well. Maybe my memory is that poor. At any rate, it works in a reasonable and useful way now., and that's the truly important thing.

Honestly, now that I know that Explosive Blast got fixed at some point and I don't have to slot KB -> KD in it, this is really more a matter of "It would be nice" than a matter of need. Of course, this is still the "Suggestions" forum, and "it would be nice if..." is still a Suggestion. You may notice that I edited the initial post quite a bit (and am actually going to edit it more, but I'm trying to do it in a way that preserves what I originally said so it doesn't look like I'm trying to make other people look unreasonable with their responses) to reflect this. The design of the Sudden Acceleration set still boggles my mind, though, because of the self-defeating nature of it. I guess what I'm saying is, "I can accept possibly slotting a suboptimal set if I feel like it's my choice to do so, rather than because I have to," if that makes sense.

It would certainly help. I still question the design of a set that has Knockback enhancement and then turns KB into KD, just because the set works against itself inhrently. It kind of defies logic. And where am I going to slot two Basilisk's Gaze on an Energy/Energy/Force blaster? I don't have any Hold powers and I'm using all of my Pools already. For that matter, where am I going to cram four Devastations in my build when all my single-target ranged attacks are six-slotted with either Thunderstrike (for ranged defense, which I have just barely soft-capped) or Blaster ATO's (for ranged defense and other things besides)? Overwhelming Force might not be the most efficient set in terms of set bonuses out there, but it gives me several things I need (Damage bonus, Ranged defense bonus, Knockback protection) and a couple of things that are nice to have (+HP, +regen) all in one place. If I could slot a second set of it in Nova, I'd definitely prefer that over the 5-piece Scirocco's + Sudden Acceleration KB -> KD I have slotted in it now.

@Vanden - You're right. It does always knock the target away from the blaster now. That's so much better. Thank you for pointing this out, because I can only guess this change went in during one of the periodic hiatuses (is that a word? What is the plural of "hiatus", anyway)? that I took from Live so as not to burn out. After blowing up some Hellions in Perez Park, I can see that the power is actually useful now without the KB -> KD in it (though I imagine teams would still be happier with me if I continued to slot it, given the size of the area it hits and therefore the number of enemies being knocked back). @Troo - Ok, so I was wrong to call the power useless, but that was because I didn't know that at some point along the way it got fixed. Once upon a time, the power was useless out of the box, but now it isn't, and that's a good thing. I still maintain that Sudden Acceleration is not a good set because its enhancement bonuses clash with its KB -> KD IO, and that it'd be more appropriate to have the KB -> KD in a set that doesn't enhance KB, though. That said, the fact that slotting KB -> KD in Explosive Blast is more of a tactical decision, and not one that is forced on me by bad power design, definitely makes me feel less frustrated about it.

Yep, this is what makes OF good. The KB protection by itself isn't great, but some of its other set bonuses (notably, 3% damage buff and E/N/Ranged defense) are pretty nice.

Ok, useless is probably hyperbole. But it's a set that is at odds with itself in terms of its enhancement, and its set bonuses are less useful than the bonuses in the set I would otherwise slot. So, let's call it "very supoptimal". Note also that I did not include the proc in my numbers, because a damage set with a KB -> KD as I was suggesting wouldn't have that proc. And the reason I chose Scirocco's for comparison is because that is the actual set I currently slot in Nova (minus one piece for the Sudden Acceleration KB -> KD), so the numbers reflect what I would actually be losing by making that switch. As for the set bonuses, those are entirely situational as to which one is better. It depends highly on the rest of your build. As it happens, for me the defense bonuses from Scirocco's stack with my existing defense from Weave, Hover, Maneuvers, and the two +3% def IO's, so they provide me substantially more survival advantage than the bonuses from Sudden Acceleration. Of course, my hypothetical damage set with KB -> KD might not get set bonuses that work any better for me than Sudden Acceleration's do, and if not, c'est la vie, but at least the power enhancement itself would be better, which would make the suboptimal set bonuses easier to live with. Of course, it's been pointed out to me in the other thread that Explosive Blast actually got fixed at some point, which I was not aware of, and is no longer useless without KB -> KD. And if that's so, the whole thing is much less of an issue for me than it would be otherwise.

Maybe I've just had bad luck with teaming with jerks, but I have heard this from other energy blasters as well, that they get hostility just for being an energy blaster when they join teams. Mind you, this is largely based on my experience back on Live - I haven't done much teaming on HC because of the sound stacking problem causing me to get headaches from playing in teams, but I've been looking forward to being able to team again once Page 4 goes live. So maybe I'll find that HC is better about this than Live was. I hope so. I had Explosive Blast briefly on Live (pretty early in my time on live), and my memory of that experience was that I was not able to aim/control its Knockback the way I could Torrent, and had to do a Terra Volta trial just to respec out of it. Granted, that was a long time ago, so maybe it got changed at some point and I didn't know about it? On HC I slotted the KB -> KD the instant I took Explosive Blast, so I haven't actually used it on HC without the KB -> KD slotted. If it's true that you can control it's KB now, then I have no issue with it. Though I'll probably still slot KB -> KD in it just so that I can do Explosive Blast -> Torrent as an AoE chain, because otherwise Energy doesn't have a viable AoE chain. But at least in that case I wouldn't feel like I was forced to slot it. EDIT: In fact, now I'm going to have to go buy an Unslotter and test this. Because if they changed that, I'll be really happy to know it (even if I do put the KB -> KD right back into it after), just because that would make it a much better power than the version I remember.

@Troo Let me put this in a different way. Right now, if an energy blaster doesn't slot KB -> KD in their powers (at minimum, Explosive Blast and Nova), they're likely to get kicked from a lot of teams. Hell, I've seen energy blasters get kicked from teams JUST FOR BEING ENERGY BLASTERS, because a lot of players are jerks. So the energy blaster is walking a fine line from the start, just by existing. Why are we punishing them for doing what they have to do to be a good teammate by forcing them to slot an enhancement from a set that they absolutely aren't going to slot any other pieces of (and therefore can't get set bonuses from)? Note that I love the Overwhelming Force set. I slot it happily. It's a good, useful set. My problem is not with having to slot KB -> KD (though, as I noted, in the case of Explosive Blast this still feels very much like a band-aid slapped over a badly-designed power). I don't mind slotting the Overwhelming Force KB -> KD because the rest of the set is actually beneficial. Note that this is the set I slot in Explosive Blast, and I 6-slot it. I do this because WITH KB -> KD, Explosive Blast becomes a very useful part of my arsenal, a badly needed AoE in a set that has very little AoE for a blaster. But having to slot the Sudden Acceleration KD -> KB in Nova, which, incidentally, is the ONE occasion when scattering your enemies actually CAN be useful when soloing (because it gives you a bit of breathing room after the crash) so that teams don't hate me feels like being punished for trying to be a good teammate (because if I was only soloing, I wouldn't slot it!) Frankly, just joining teams as an energy blaster and dealing with the hostility I sometimes get before I even get a chance to prove that I know how to play is the reason I don't play my energy blaster (who is absolutely my favorite character concept out of all of my characters - in fact, the character in my avatar image is my energy blaster) more than I do. And the only thing that I can do to try to mitigate that hostility punishes me by reducing my effectiveness. This is not good design. Sure, you can say that this is a problem of "players being assholes" for treating energy blasters this way, rather than a problem of design, I'll even acknowledge, outside of the poor design of Explosive Blast, that this is true. But you can't stop players from being assholes, and you can change the design to make life a little easier for those who are trying to live with it!

This is exactly what I'm saying. Sure, if you don't slot the KB -> KD it's fine as a Knockback Set, Not that I've ever had any use for a Knockback set, but I know that some people do use them and that's fine. The problem is that the set and the KB -> KD are at odds with each other, which means the set might as well not have a 6-piece bonus because 6-slotting it is useless. I should think that part of my meaning was pretty apparent, though I guess from @Troo's snarky-as-Hell response it wasn't (note to @Troo; I didn't downvote you for what you said, I downvoted you for saying it in the most obnoxious, aggressive manner you possibly could). And @Andreah, your other suggestions would work just fine for me, too. Anything that makes slotting the KB -> KD feel less like a band-aid slapped over bad design, which is something I find intensely frustrating.

See MY comments on your comments. Sudden Acceleration is not a useful set. To slot Sudden Acceleration instead of a Damage set, you give up: 37.1% damage enhancement 26.5% accuracy enhancement 26.5% endurance reduction 5.3% recharge reduction How is this a viable alternative to slotting a damage set? Slotting 5 pieces of a damage set and one piece of Sudden Acceleration is clearly superior, and that IS an enhancement tax. Also, @Troo, I fail to see how you can argue that Explosive Blast is not a badly-designed power. Scattering your enemies the way Explosive Blast does out of the box is not EVER useful. And if you ever use Explosive Blast without KB -> KD slotted in a team, I guarantee your team will howl. I've seen it happen, several times (not on my energy blaster, mind, because before KB -> KD existed I didn't take Explosive Blast for that very reason, but I've seen it with energy blasters I've teamed with!) Energy Torrent is useful because you can actually aim your KB. You can even transform it to KD by hovering over your target. It's a good power, there are viable uses for it in its default form. I don't slot KB -> KD in it because the power is fine without it. Explosive Blast doesn't give you any ways to avoid scattering your enemies, and that makes it a badly-designed power. (And if it wasn't clear by now, the other power you have to slot KB -> KD in if you don't want your team to murder you is Nova).

It's still a poor replacement for a damage set. Take, for example, my current slotting in Nova, which is 5 Scirocco's Dervish and 1 Sudden Acceleration KB -> KD. Scirocco's Dervish gives: Two accuracy halves (26.5% x 2 = 53%) and an accuracy third (21.2%) = 74.2% accuracy (73.78% with ED) Three damage halves (26.5% x 3 = 79.5%) and a damage third (21.2%) = 100.7% damage (95.11% with ED) An endurance half (26.5%) and an endurance third (21.2%) = 47.7% endurance reduction (ED doesn't apply) Two recharge halves (26.5% x 2 = 53%) = 53% recharge reduction (ED doesn't apply) Sudden Acceleration gives: Two Knockback halves and three Knockback thirds (all useless if you slot the KB -> KD) Three damage thirds (21.2% x 3 = 63.6%) = 63.6% damage (ED doesn't apply) One accuracy half (26.5%) and one accuracy third (21.2%) = 47.7% accuracy (ED doesn't apply) One endurance third (21.2%) = 21.2% endurance reduction (ED doesn't apply) One recharge half (26.5%) and one recharge third (21.2%) = 47.7% recharge reduction (ED doesn't apply) This means that slotting Sudden Acceleration instead of a damage set costs us: 37.1% damage enhancement 26.5% accuracy enhancement 26.5% endurance reduction 5.3% recharge reduction All told, that's a lot of price to pay to get a 6-piece set bonus. On top of that, Sudden Acceleration has no defense OR resistance on its set bonuses, something nearly all attack sets have. All told, Sudden Acceleration is a poor substitute for an attack set. Which is why nobody slots the set, and instead just slots 5 pieces of an attack set and the KB -> KD and then feels grumpy about losing a set bonus.

((MAJOR EDIT: Before you read the rest of this post, a little clarification on something: when I originally wrote this post, I was operating under my memory of Explosive Blast back in Live scattering enemies outward from the center of the blast, rather thann knocking them back from the Blaster. Either my memory is really off (not impossible), or the power got fixed at some point along the way, but either way, it's much, much better now. As such, this suggestion now falls in the realm of "it would be nice to have this" rather than "we really need this". I still think the Sudden Acceleration set's design is kind of self-defeating and illogical, but now that I know I don't have to slot it (because I can just slot Overwhelming Force in Nova and not slot a KB -> KD in Explosive blast), it doesn't feel nearly so punishing as it did.)) So, in the whole discussion about the KB -> KD toggle (which is an idea I am opposed to, incidentally), @Rudra raised the point that slotting the KB -> KD IO is only a set bonus tax if you don't slot the rest of the set. Unfortunately, this raises a problem of its own. There are two KB -> KD IO's in the game, currently, and one of them is in a completely useless EDIT to remove hyperbole: generally poor set. Overwhelming Force: Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown, which is in a Universal Damage set. This one is great, but is unfortunately Unique. Sudden Acceleration: Knockback to Knockdown, which is in a Knockback set, and every other enhancement in the set enhances Knockback. This is a terrible set design, frankly, because if you slot the KB -> KD IO, you render almost half the enhancement value provided by the set useless. EDIT: Based on initial response, I have to concede that the set itself has uses up to 5 pieces (i.e. if you don't slot the KB -> KD, it's perfectly functional as a Knockback set). I still maintain that having a set where half of its enhancement bonuses are nullified if you slot the KB -> KD proc is not great design). Given that some sets (Energy Blast) have at least two powers that require KB -> KD to be effectively used in a team environment (and let's be honest, Explosive Blast requires KB -> KD to be useful even solo, because it's a badly-designed power out of the box EDIT: Apparently it got fixed at some point and is no longer terrible. Learning this made me happy.), can we get another KB -> KD Io that isn't in a useless poorly-designed set? This would go along way to helping those of us who choose Energy Blast feel like we're not being punished for playing the set. Essentially, what I'm asking for is a KB -> KD IO, either in a new Universal Damage set or in a Knockback set (so it can be slotted in any power with Knockback) that doesn't actually have any Knockback enhancement in the set, which is to say, it has an enhancement setup akin to a Damage set. Ideally, this IO would not be Unique, though in my own personal case it would be fine if it was, since I only slot KB -> KD in Explosive Blast and Nova anyway... but I assume that some people would like to slot more than two KB -> KD IO's and would like to not have to slot the useless poorly-thought-out Sudden Acceleration set in order to get set bonuses. Anyway, that's my suggestion.

In fairness to the people complaining about the KB -> KD IO being an enhancement tax, one of the two KB -> KD IO's is in a knockback set (Sudden Acceleration). Which is to say, a set that enhances knockback. In fact, it enhances Knockback on every piece other than the KB -> KD IO itself! A very large portion of the set's enhancement is completely useless if you are slotting the KB -> KD piece. So, slotting the Sudden Acceleration set is kind of a non-starter. The truth of the matter is that Sudden Acceleration is a terrible set. The other one, on the other hand, is in Overwhelming Force, which is actually a pretty good set (I use this in Explosive Blast on my energy blaster, because Explosive Blast is a terrible power without KB -> KD in it). Unfortunately, this one is a unique, so you can only slot it once. One change I would be in favor of (as opposed to the toggle idea, which I strongly oppose) is adding a Ranged Damage (or Ranged AoE Damage) set (or another Universal Damage set) with a KB -> KD IO in it. Or, more sensibly, possibly, another Knockback set (so it can be slotted in any Knockback power) but without actual Knockback enhancement, giving it an enhancement profile similar to a damage set. Because even for me, the enhancement tax of having to slot Sudden Acceleration KB -> KD in Nova is rather annoying. I do it, but I don't like it. In fact, I may submit this as a separate suggestion. Even that wouldn't bother me if it weren't for the fact that Energy Blast has two powers whose knockback can't be used in a constructive fashion in a team - Explosive Blast and Nova. Actually, this is really the thing that bugs me about the KB -> KD IO to begin with. I feel like it's a band-aid for a few badly-designed powers in the game. Nova at least makes some sense - its knockback is at least useful when soloing, as it pushes the survivors away from you so they don't gank you while you pop blues and get your toggles back up - but its KB is still detrimental in a team environment. Explosive Blast, on the other hand, is a terribly deisgned power that is completely useless without a KB -> KD IO, and having to slot that IO in a power because the power is badly designed irks me. It would irk me a lot less if I didn't also need a second KB -> KD IO for Nova (forcing me to use Sudden Acceleration in one power or the other) though; if I only needed to slot the Overwhelming Force one, which comes in a usable set, that would be fairly tolerable. You are definitely right about people screaming when an energy blaster joins the team. I have to admit, it really ticks me off, too. Some of us know how to use our knockback as a tool and an asset to the team rather than a detriment. The only powers in Energy Blast in which the knockback can't be used constructively are Explosive Blast (which, as I said before, is just a terrible power if you don't slot KB -> KD in it) and Nova (and in Nova's defense, it tends defeat most of its targets anyway, though scattering the remnants - which are generally the biggest, baddest enemies in the spawn - is still not good). Every other Energy Blast power - even Torrent - has ways to be used to help the party rather than hurt it. My experience has been that if the team leader ignores the screamer and just gets things rolling, they usually shut up after the first mission when they realize the energy blaster knows what they are doing. For the single target blasts, as long as the energy blaster is competent (i.e. is not targeting through the melee and KB'ing their targets, and is not knocking enemies into other spawns), the KB is not a problem. As I tell my teams, "If I KB a single target, I am claiming that target and I will finish it, so you can safely ignore it." As far as Torrent is concerned, you have two useful ways to use it. Either 1) Hover over the targets so your knockback knocks them INTO THE GROUND instead of across the room, or 2) If you don't have Hover or there isn't room to use it, use Torrent to herd enemies on the perimeter toward the tank. There's also a third use for Torrent - self defense - which isn't so much constructive as a matter of survival and also a case of "if the energy blaster has multiple enemies in his or her face, then either the tank has lost aggro or is over the aggro cap and things have already gone to hell in a handbasket anyway, so you aren't really making things worse."

Yeah, I've seen this happen. Zoning fixed it in my case.

My suspicion is somewhat in this line, but not quite the same: I'm inclined to think that the change is intended to force people to build a more diverse mitigation package in an effort to rein in some of the hyper-offensive builds. In particular, to make players look seriously at things like the 6-piece set bonuses to Toxic and Psi resistance that are frequently eschewed on purple attack sets in favor of Moar Procs.

Energy Melee is top ST, though a lot of people do use a snipe in their rotation (I don't, though, I just go ET -> TF -> ET -> BS -> EP instead). Not using a snipe brings the DPS down a little bit, but it's still first-rate. Claws is best known for its AoE, but actually also very strong at single target if you have enough recharge to run Follow-Up -> Focus -> Slash as your ST attack chain. This is largely because this attack chain allows you to maintain double-stacked Follow-Up at all times (and sometimes have it triple-stacked). And, of course, we know Claws' AoE performance is wonderful with the Follow-Up -> Spin -> Shockwave chain. Obtaining the large amount of recharge required is somewhat eased, however, by the fact that Force Feedback can be slotted in Focus and/or Shockwave. Those are absolutely your top two for single target DPS, and Claws definitely does not require any Epic/pool attacks for its best attack chains. In fact, you only need to take 6 attacks overall, and you don't need to slot whichever of the first two you take unless you just want to use it as a set mule or have it available if you exemp below whatever level you took Hasten. Other honorable mentions: DB is pretty solid with the right setup. I know War Mace is highly rated for AoE, but I can't speak for its single target performance, as I haven't personally played it. Martial Arts is pretty solid, IIRC. Katana is good if you're not leaning on Divine Avalanche too much, but if you're depending on DA for defense it can really drag down your damage output. As for a full list, I haven't seen one anywhere. But if you haven't played Claws yet, you absolutely should. It's a joy to play. Aside from its excellent performance, the presence of a ranged attack with KD (Focus) and a ranged cone (Shockwave) with KB (you'll want to slot the Overwhelming Force KB -> KD here, along with possibly a Force Feedback proc) give it a surprising amount of crowd control for a Scrapper set.

For what it's worth, losing the combo doesn't bother me now, when it only happens when I whiff the final attack. That happens a lot less often than missing any one attack in the combo, after all. But back when missing any attack in the combo meant losing the combo? That got aggravating really fast.

This is also what I do on my /Shield and /SR characters. Mez protection on auto, manually run Hasten. I put Hasten on the same bar as my attacks so I can easily see when it's recharged.

While I agree with your suggestion, I disagree with your characterization of those concerned about the duration of the suppression. Sure, for someone who has three or four offensive toggles, honestly, it probably does take them longer than 8 seconds realistically to get them restored. But for someone who only has one offensive toggle, they'd probably have it back up in considerably less time than that (presuming that they're paying attention). Even in the multiple-offensive-toggle case, it should be noted that how long you're going to take to get your toggles back up - and how focused you are on doing so - depends on what set you are. If I am on my Rad/Rad Defender, my #1 focus is absolutely going to be getting my offensive toggles back up ASAP, because my "offensive" toggles are my primary survival mechanism. If I don't get them back ASAP, I am going to die, quickly, and possibly the other squishies in my team will die, too. Perhaps the suppression should end in a staggered fashion, somehow? One toggle un-suppresses every 2 seconds after the mez ends? This would more closely mimic how quickly they'd get them restored if they were doing it themselves, even if they don't get to control which one comes up first.

It's pretty easy to soft-cap Energy/Negative defense on Willpower, especially if you don't bother to soft-cap Smash/Lethal defense (which I usually don't, since I'm going to have hard-capped S/L resistances anyway (and particularly on my Staff/WP who is going to get soft-capped Lethal anyway thanks to Guarded Spin). I haven't soft-capped Fire/Cold on my /WP's, but purple attack sets tend to provide lots of Fire/Cold resist. And /WP does better against Psi than most sets already. Honestly, I think WP is in a better situation with regard to this change than, say, Energy Aura, which is definitely going to have to be very careful around certain enemies even with the small amounts of Psi/Toxic mitigation being added. That said, Energy Aura is still going to be a very strong set overall.

Oh, I'm aware. My DB/WP uses Blinding Feint -> Attack Vitals, because on Willpower it's not worth chasing after the Recharge for the best attack chain (in part because Willpower itself doesn't benefit from having that much recharge, and in part because getting that much recharge on Willlpower requires too many sacrifices). My DB/SR and DB/Energy Aura, of course, are another matter.

They're also unnecessary, though. You can use the combo system, but one of the best attack chains for DB (possibly the best) doesn't use it at all. Though the improvements to the combo system from the DB overhaul make it much more worthwhile than it used to be.

For some Blaster sustains (Frigid Protection comes to mind) the debuff is the part that keeps you alive. I mean, the +regen on it is nice, but without the Slow you're still going to die really fast. Which would make this still a pretty major nerf.

At first, I was witholding comment on this subject because I don't play Controllers, I only have one Dominator, and I only have one Defender. So I figured I'd let those with more stake in the game discuss it. Then I realized that this will affect my Ice/Ice blaster, with her Frigid Protection, which is pretty much her lifeblood. Having that toggle off for 8 seconds after a mez is very likely to be deadly - and it's the only offensive toggle she has. Frankly, I'd rather deal with having to manually retoggle it than have to wait an entire rodeo ride for it to reactivate (and trying to survive those 8 seconds might be just about as hectic, too). I like the idea of offensive toggle suppression, but the timer should definitely be shorter. A lot shorter. Or else it's a net nerf for most players.