Golden Azrael

...and my favourite Type, the 'Dominator' came from CoV. ironically. Azrael.

Why not? It's not in my nature to be a villain. 😉 That's why not. I've done the patrons twice and helped by duo partner get their patron once. Each time? I held my nose. It just doesn't feel right. CoV, for me, is the massive 'side step' that killed CoH and torpedo'd its initial momentum. And 'Going Rogue' just compounded that. Instead of taking the main game, the power sets, the interior mission tiles, the early game repetition, end game content with a nice Moon Base forwards? We got two repeats of the same thing. Duplication. 'CoV' could have been done with PvP in the 'red trams' districts (it's on each COH zone map....) where life is harder in those zones for heroes. So if you went into those red trams? Expect villains guarding mission entrances...pvp engaged. CoV gameplay could have been made more geared towards hindering CoH heroes in game. It would have required some innovative thought to level. Instead we got CoH dressed up in? The worst design in the game. With the New Gods Apocalypse done real badly design. The design in the Arachnos style maps is so bad. Dowdy. Dull. Drab. Uninspired. Poor, poor design. And the maps. Drab. Dull. Dowdy. (I said that already....) All that work to create a whole 'nuther Paragon City which could have gone into giving CoH what it really needed. A progressive game engine to update the graphics going forwards. New Maps for CoH. New interior maps. New game content at the beginning, middle and end of the game. instead of trying to do all that for two 'different' games which was unsustainable. The best thing that came out of CoV? The Archetypes. Which, in many ways, eclipsed the design originals of CoH. Eg. The 'fury' mechanism on Brutes to increase damage for 'tanks' (sorry) 'Brutes.' It was clearly originally meant for tanks until Cryptic changed direction. It was a direction that stalled COH's development into a holding pattern and gave CoV a short lived boost until people realised? it was the same simply but well loved ham burger of the game. All the effort of CoV and Rogue should have gone into extending the base game. Instead it drained the core game of any chance of really going forwards. That said, Cryptic did well to get the game to 'almost' 24 issues. With new zones. New power. New stories. The incarnate system. A nestled table hell grind system. Why not just use the normal pick up and play interface and give us super epics with normal slots sitting nicely under Epics...? So, why don't I like CoV? I'm not a villain. Everyday, I want to be a better person. CoV doesn't jive with that. It's hard enough to combat the darkness in our souls without adding to it. Azrael.

Hello ScoRe, Leandro...or whoever is in charge of the Taunt Department of Humane Resources, Nearly every tank I seem to roll gets the guttural 'Hur!' (That's 3 tanks in a row.) Yet my Duo Partner's 1st roll is? 'Arh!' which sounds a bit more civilised. Is there any chance we can choose our Taunt noise like we can our flight poses? A hot fix? A choice? /taunt 'Arh!' /taunt 'Hur!' I really don't like the 'Hur' sound or the doubled over being sick pose either. I like the grand standing come and get some pose better...WITH the 'Arh....' Tank Love, Azrael.

Hello Captain Powerhouse, Is there any way (for the love of God....) to change the 'HUR!' taunt to the 'Arrh' taunt? Every tank I roll seems to 'Hur' (pass the sick bucket hurl) vs the more civilised, 'Ahh.....' You know, like changing your flight pose 1-4? Can we have a hard code taunt 1-2? It drives me crazy when each tank I roll has the 'Hur!' instead of the 'Arh.' Regards, Azrael.

I was disappointed that Thunderstrike was only 'a little' ahead of Havoc Punch (which is a punch you through the chain link fence kinda punch. POW!) for damage. And your DPA is on point. True. After I've laid the control smack down? Havoc punch, energy punch, snipe insta pop and lightning blast (not as emphatic as some blasts...couldnt' they add DoT elements to elec assault? Like the addiontal Poison DoT on some Thorn attacks?) I used them heavily when 'hoovering' up the chain fence mobs. A great 'beat' (pun intended) to the elec assault song. On farming? 'Meh.' But AoEs. Also 'Meh.' However, Static blast, ball of lightning (on even con whites...) should trim the HPs on the held mob. And when TS's AoE element (it can be how you position yourself to a degree...) kicks in it can be good to have a 'Havoc +' output hitting 2 or 3 enemies. I like how it sends them flying. It's a theatrical finisher. I like it. A touch slow though in the way that 'slow' snipe was 'a bit' slow. I like the auto snipe from that stand point. It has a real 'kick' to it now. And there's no reason why TS and TF couldn't have a bit more 'kick' to their ker-pow. Both TS and Total Focus have issues with sloooow animation. So does impale in Thorn assault. Guess it's all part of the balladic style of CoH. And that's a good thing (TM.) Overall. But knocking off a second or so on some animations might be a good idea, done judiciously. I wouldn't want the skitter-y jittery animation of Champions MMO, for eg. Azrael.

Well. I see the plant tentacles are there. I've seen brutes take longer to clear. So the time is impressive. I'd be even more impressed if an elec/elec domi could do that w/o incarnate powers. I've got my plant/thorns assault Domi up to L28. Enjoying it so far. I find the powers are a little slow to execute on Thorns assault. But fun enough. I do like the controls. But there's some whopping recharges on the vine/tentacle things. :o As for Elec/Elec domi. I find you have to really peddle hard to get it really going. I'll see if I can fit the end mods into the build. On the way up I try to balance my build. Controls with attack. The controls longer but enough damage to take the mobs out in that time. End is still somewhat of an issue I have to keep one eye on. Can't go all out (or can in short bursts...) If I time it right, Domi comes up just in time to fill the stamina bar. It does make for exciting gameplay. The AoE damage is weak. Single hitting is 'ok.' (Havoc punch can BOMP....and Snipe is a potent hitter. With insta snipe coming on tap soon. Though with Leadership Tactics, Domi button and BUp I have it reasonably often. Thunder strike. I like. It puts the boot into chain linked fence held mobs. But you have to be careful not to scatter them too much. It does take a while to execute. Is it faster than Total Focus? Random question.) I still see opportunities for amplified damage. eg. On the confuse, chain link minor dot. eg. Brain damage. A nudge on electric fences. Static Shock...seems an obvious choice to deploy some there. L38. I haven't finished my build yet. I have general IO enhancements in there. Epics. Because the original developers saw fit not to have, inexplicably, an Electric Domi Epic set...I have to, reluctantly, do the Patron arc to keep theme. (Non of the others fit.) If SCORE want to fix something, perhaps that is something they can allow. ie. Elec Domi Epic choices. Going for Elec armour so I can hang amongst the chain fence, slept mobs and take the odd punch while end draining. Then Ball of Lightning to go with the electric AoE (the only one...) from elec assault. So x 2 AoE then with Thunderstrike to act as a 'third' as a finisher, perhaps. It's my biggest hitter outside of snipe. Slots are tight. I've got all the elec powers bar the 1st single elec fence. The final two epics (patrons...) will be Power Surge for when I start to lose it (deck of cards, at times, teh Domi...) and Power Sink to end remove the mobs or bosses. I always dread taking on those 'end freaks' Stunner Freaks. I suppose they're like fighting an Elec/Elec domi. They're pretty tough to take down. Tougher than Freak tanks in some ways. Regardless of quibbles over AoE dam/control dam. It's a great control set. Huge variety. Bags of fun married to the elec assault. The original devs did their job very well on it. The idea above of chaining damage like on (static shock?) for elec primary on brute/tank/scrapper. That's a good attack. You hit the first and the damage spikes to any mob nearby. Kool stuff. I'd like that attack to be part of the elec assault set. But not sure what I'd take out. Maybe it could be part of the elec domi epic instead of the mu pet? Azrael.

I think the domination inherent is the best in the game. Very satisfying to 'hit that button'. Boom. 'You're getting it now.' The only thing thing Domination didn't seem to work on, that I've encountered, is Babbage. Though I was beginning to end drain him. Azrael.

It hurts how little elec control gets out of domination. Could the confuse chain and sleep patch be made so the they benefit from domination? Confuse chain is so slow, only the first target being affected by domination is kind of a slap in the face. Or maybe the end drain stuff gets boosted (and only the first target from chains gets end drained too...). I get the feeling a bit more could come from Elec control with a gentle brush over. A bit more minor damage or trickle damage here or there. Conductive Aura could be an opportunity for minor damage maybe. As you drain all of their endurance it begins to have a damage effect on their nerves/body. With DoT trickle damage, kicking in when they are end drained completely. A nudge on chain fence damage, perhaps with end mod being more apparent. Static. I like the confuse (funny power to watch...) and use that 1st and get them going then put the sleep on them. Then Chain Fence. Then I wander in and stand there with 'Aura' to drain the end out of them and take them out. Static shock holds them. But a chance for some damage there (it comes around every 4 minutes, folks...) Confuse pickles their brains. The 1st target gets some damage perhaps? And as it gets passed on so does the brain damage. Chance for minor damage there as well. The fall over power. (I can never remember it's name) is good. But a chance to nudge the damage there as well? So the accumulative damage of all these would be more noticeable than they are now. Pretty negligible whether they have damage or not. As pure control. Not bad at all. I like 'how' it plays. But the damage return is mute. The assault set, I guess, allows you to open up and clobber them when they're subdued. I didn't realise that the end mod affected only the 1st target on confuse or chain fence? I see. Domination makes everything last longer. It's noticeable. And the to hit is boosted? But I wonder if there is any chance of giving Domi's that red 'damage' button from the Scorpion patron arc as a permanent damage boost? Or having 'assault' boosted as well when Domi is active? Yes. A bit more damage, the end mod being boosted and affecting all targets is surely the point of Domination? There's not a vast amount wrong with doms. Their not scrappers. Not blasters. Not controllers. But they can do all three in a brittle but exciting gameplay. A nudge on damage and end mod for Elec controllers and domi to apply to all targets would help. It's a rewarding set. But you have to make it work really hard to get it bomping. Conducting aura is suppose to return end to you? It seems really slow at it. That's with x3 end mods in it. Only when I was surrounded by about 12-15 mob did I notice. I think the key to evolving the elec control set is chaining the effects of all the elec control set so the damage is more accumulative in effect and like so for end mod. Both could be boosted to be more noticeable in impact. Azrael.

Amen to that. 8) Azrael.

Fire/Psi. They seem to be the standard build for 'melt all' damage? It's the one that seems to stand out to me. I've also heard about Plant doms with fire? Psi and Fire, though. Are the games standouts. Not many things resist Psi and Fire teh POwURful damage burnie. You see it with a spines/fire farm built. Some things are 'go to' for the damage. That isn't a big attraction to me. Though I would like a bit more damage on my elec/elec domi on control and assault sets. Dom's are brittle and very tippy tappy. But that Domination button. Oh mamma. I find it's brittle play style compelling though. My current favourite type. Brutes and scrappers. Where's the vulnerability? I'm tough and I do loads of damage. Where's the challenge? Wander in. Hit stuff. Get surrounded. Wait. It's all dead. (Though my elec shield brute is, at L32 still making hard work of it...with a leaky end problem...) My elec/elec domi' is 'ok' at single target damage. I use Build Up to supplement my damage out put AND Assault from Leadership. (I'll take what I can get...) I wonder if the incarnate damage power in my incarnate slot would help...boost damage out put some. As for Jack. Give him a 'slow' aura. That would make his dull witted persona more compelling. Give him Bitter Freeze Ray. So he's a slow plodding slower...with a big south paw punch. Azrael.

Good catch, Senseichen! I remember rolling a Gravity Energy Dominator. Very 'different.' And yes, vaguely recall En's Power Push on Assault being regular blast damage with 100 KB. Now that's what I'm talking about. I'd love to see En/En get the knock back love. (Hey, Ice holds. It holds. Not 'maybe'. It holds. It's slows. It slows. Not if. It slows. I'd like to see the knbk on energy a bit more '100%'. Fun mitigation. It buys you just enough time to get your shots off.) It would make the class more fun. The snipe and energize are huge steps in the right direction. Put the guaranteed knock into Power Boost and have that as a toggle maybe. I'd like to see some of that bio armour modulation brought to energy 2ndary. One mode makes you do perma-hasten. Another mode allows perma-DEFFO-KnBK. Another mode is STUN! Another mode is bonus damage (En is so mediocre..) another mode makes your powers AoE but less damage than single attack. etc. Blast modes would be SO cool!!!! Azrael.

Tried an ice controller. Was so looking forward to my pet Jack Frost. Oh dear. A dim-witted pet. After the seeing the frenetic fire imps in action? I was so disappointed that I stopped play my ice/rad. Jack got a buff? He had a glass jaw and now he don't. Whoop. Needs to be more mischievous like the electric gremlins. (Now, they DO have a glass jaw...) Aye. Not all dos play like Fire/Psi. AoE or bust? I like my single target elec/elec domi. I love it. A little bit more damage over the set(s) would be good. I've seen fire/psi melt mobs and do stuff I can only dream of. Ice dom. Tried it. I felt it sucked. If you want a real ice dom? Roll an ice blaster. i24 was transformative for them. Ice aura slows down mobs a treat with sound range. And it can stack with ice storm. Awesomeness. Beam rifle. Tried on on live. I felt it was the worst graphical and 'feel' for a set Paragon had ever done. I'll have to go back and give it another try. I recently teamed with a Beam on my Team (heh) and it looked like he was doing 'ok.' ;) 100% change for disintegration. You know? What would be REALLY transformative? 100% for knock back for en/en blaster. It's irritatingly hap hazard. Eg. Like Force Bolt. When it hits? It's going to do knock back. Or like Force Bubble? When it hits you? You're getting pushed back. No question. Azrael.

Now that's what I'm talking about. :) Azrael. PS. Energy Punch from Energy Melee kinda sucks after the Lord Mayor's show of Barrage's revamp? Mere love tap. PPS. I'd like the equivalent of 'Rage' from SS on En Melee tank. 'Power Surge!' To replace build up.

Whilst I'm at it, I wouldn't mind some trickle damage over time on some of the elec control powers. I find the damage on that set underwhelming for the elec' domi. I Also have an elec elec.. remember part of the elec theme is sleep, and DoTs would break it... im fine with more damage, just not in a way that breaks the elec sleeps ...do Blasters dream of electric sleeps? My domi uses electric sleeps alot. It's 5 slotted. Just one more recharge to go... I recall the pets Electric Gremlins being a little flimsy. I'd like to see them attack with a bit more ferocity. ...and I have a future where I want to unlock the Mu Patron. Azrael.

Whilst I'm at it, I wouldn't mind some trickle damage over time on some of the elec control powers. I find the damage on that set underwhelming for the elec' domi. I Also have an elec elec.. remember part of the elec theme is sleep, and DoTs would break it... im fine with more damage, just not in a way that breaks the elec sleeps Sleep in Electric Fences. Aye. I'm currently re-rolling my Elec Domi (that I spent 4 billion influ' on live...back in teh day...) and I'm enjoying 'getting it back there.' Lots of brittle fun. Do or die... Control or assault. Sleep. Yes. Lots of sleep. Confuse. End drain. Static. Tesla Cages. With a nice snipe here and there....with bonesmashing fun. How many ways to pull legs off spiders. Blap. Blast. Scrap. Control. Party Susan. Azrael.

While your visiting with Energy Assault, Energy Melee (in all its forms) might benefit from some attention, given that its noteworth attributes are terrible AOE damage, terrible single-target damage, and an attack you can kill yourself with. :) Ouch. I can see i was being diplomatic. :P Lol. But true, though. Compared to the Water set, it hasn't aged well. Some great animations. Brilliantly fluid gameplay. I thought most attacks on energy you could get yourself killed with. ;) Knockback always kinda of annoyed me because it's the mitigation is en's only protection. It's very erratic. Eg. Force Bolt from the Defender set HITS and there IS knockback. Sometimes with Torrent mobs go over like skittles and it's whoo-hoo...and other times? They stand there? 'So, you hit me with a mediocre AOE power with erratic knockback? Don't you know that can lead blasters to a dark place in the back of a skip?' *(You've just angred a heap of Freakshow who will (!) drain you, beat you, stun you, knock you over etc. If only my blaster could do (?) all that...) Be nice to have guaranteed knockback with a stun element. Azrael.

And finally, 'on topic'. The snipe changes are good. I've played them on test. Now that the range and recharge are back(?) to where they were. I tested last night with the count down timers on. So it's back to 12 seconds, right? Feels good with the auto power. I don't miss the AIM/BU/PB activation as much as I thought. The in-out combat is very well executed. The 'slow' snipe is much better. A sound example of CoH democratisation and not needing to hack powers into your built or zillions of spare slots or an expensive IO. Well executed by TEAM SCORE. I don't like keeping the 'same' animation for the 'fast snipe.' I liked the old one better. (Can't we have 'that' one as a 2nd snipe animation choice in the power customisation screen?) I know why it appeared like that. But I like the 'shoot from the hip' style. It made more sense. 'Ker-PoW!' Fastest 'gun' in the west style. 'PULL!' There doesn't seem to be any 'real' noticeable delay in activation. However, perceptionally, it's still a little bit there. Combat feels 'good' and other than the animation preference, it seems good to go. Azrael.

My very first dominator when villains came out was /nrg loved it to death. The enhancements to Total Focus and Power Burst sounds like it may be nice, maybe they'll be able to get a Total Focus off now while everything else around them gets disintegrated. I play /dark now only for the ranged heal and Gather Shadows. I don't know how I feel about sharing the unique power for a particular secondary across other dom secondaries. That's like sharing Boost Range or Eagle Eye across other blaster secondaries. Sure I'll share Gather Shadows if you trade me for Eagle Eye as my t9. It's pretty embarrassing to still be up in the air whilst the Simpsons at meal time eat all the mobs around you. I'm not sure what Gather Shadows is. Never had it. Azrael.

1. Assault sets getting some love. That sounds like a good idea. On Domi's? I always felt that some of the assault sets felt a little...'cobbled together.' Others? 'Just fine.' (Really like my elec/elec Domi. *Beams with pride. And the Stone domi? Fine. Though I would have liked Built up instead of Power Boost. But there are some great control powers in stone control that can be power boosted. So I can understand why 'some doms' want to keep power boost. I used Power Boost myself to enhance my control powers on Stone Control Domi.) Whilst I'm at it, I wouldn't mind some trickle damage over time on some of the elec control powers. I find the damage on that set underwhelming for the elec' domi. 2. On a blaster? Total Focus takes an 'eon' to execute. Meanwhile the Freak show have stunned you, pulled your cape over your head and given you a kicking. Shortening the cast on that? 'Yes please.' 3. Power Boost. It's a subtle power and one that's under appreciated by me. It can boost your healing, to hit etc for 15 seconds. And one poster said it helped boost the control sets on a domi'. 'Not that long' but I've been using it as part of the 'auto-snipe' prior to the new snipe development. So the healing and to hit boost I've learned to appreciate. I'd like it if you could put the knock back element back into it. I know the devs took it out. However, on an en/en blaster, Knock back is erratic and ineffective a lot of the time and it is the only mitigation against the mob hordes. 4. As for Power Burst. When I discovered they'd increased the range I thought it was great. A punchy blast power WITH range. What's not to like. That came around 'soon enough' to use again in your attack chain. As for it not hitting hard enough? I never felt that. But if the devs want to give 'us' more damage? Yes please. But I now know the formula is more damage? more recharge. And us en/en blasters NEED to keep hitting because Knock is so erratic. As a one-two punch with the new auto snipe, great stuff. If it can be made better? :) How do I feel about an increased cast time and more damage? I'd have to try it on test. Think it gives a good bang for book dam/recharge as is. But I've an open mind on this one. 5. Energy plays like smooth butter. It's a great set. But maybe a little slow in places...and lacks a bit of punch in areas with mediocre damage at times. Definitely feels dated compared to the water set. Which has far punchier powers, hard hitting single attack and some great AOE powers with good utility and a kick ass nova. It all feels 'newer' more dynamic and harder hitting with more zest and bite. It's just all round better. Both Energy and Elec (both sets I've played extensively) could learn from this set. So maybe any mods to bring these into line could view the water set as inspiration. The Auto-snipes and the energise power revamps have been transformational, yes. Made an en/en blaster 'fun' again. But I don't think these are the final solutions. There's more to do. 6. Energy, to me, could do with a bit of a speed boost to make it snappier. When the dev's took away 'perma-hasten' in issue 4, I didn't really feel the same about my en blaster after that. Energy may not have hit the hardest but it was quick with perma hasten. Perhaps...in the way they've transformed 'Conserve' into a heal/end red' discount power...they could...(See below.) 7. Part of me wonders why Power Boost and Boost Range (surely, a '2ndary' effect?) couldn't be the same power. In the 2ndary, you get 3 successive powers that are underwhelming compared to what precedes them. You get Power Boost, Boost Range and 'Stun' three powers that (back in the day...I was bit 'meh' about.) So why not combine boost range and boost? And with the omitted power have 'BOOST SPEED!' so you can have access to perma-hasten? A power that unlocks perma hasten..? That would stack nicely with the energise buff/power. Instead of perma-hasten being behind a pay wall. What blasters need most to make them more competitive with Scrappers? Melee? Is speed. 70% would tip the balance in our favour somewhat. You can get much faster speed recharge with an uber IO build. But 70% is respectable and speed the game up somewhat. I can't believe that snipe, of all powers, is given the 'democratisation' of auto-snipe but I can see the rational for it. Hasten. For me, on energy, would be great to have perma-hasten back as an optional power for an energy 2ndary power. Something for thought. It's low hanging fruit. 8. Stun. And why stun for minor damage or no damage when you can TF? A great animation for stun but 'meh' damage. Why not high damage? Or Superior? Or give it an ace component like Whirlwind AoE mob punch? (In fact, I'd like that one to come into the energy set from the tank melee set and replace 'Stun'. Maybe Stun's animation could be used for a shorter Total Focus cast? Stun falls into the category of never picked powers because something better comes after. So, how to make it more compelling? Give it an AoE component. Give it moderate damage. (Hardly game breaking...) Give it both so it's an moderate AoE version of Power Thrust which has a great animation as has most of the energy 1st and 2nd sets. 9. Total Focus is good but takes forever. It was so slow I got to the point of just not selecting it. In the era of 'auto-snipes' why not have an 'auto-punch' that triggers super quick. Do what you've done for auto snipe. Trim the activation time. And have a juicy big punch up front and have another when in combat that triggers fast (and gives an 'old' energy transfer animation from energy melee from tank) And I'd have liked it to be AoE like ThunderStrike with knockback. Ironically, TF doesn't do knock back. Or at least knock down! I prefer Thunderstrike. It's multiple opponents and crashing knock back. Great stuff. What TF should have been. 10. In fact, I'd like Power Thrust to do AoE knock back instead of just single target. eg. A melee energy torrent effect. 11. Nova. Ice and Elec get to place or point their novas. But en blasters have to wander into a dangerous mob. Get slapped out of it...and then go boom half way in the air after the War Wolf has slapped me into the next planet. There is a cool energy animation from the pop up menus in Paragon Chat that allows you to sink your hands into the ground to do an energy fx power. It's only an emote. But wouldn't that be a great way to activate the nova power? And have the nova animation explode from a selected mob? I'll have to hunt down the name of that energy emote. But it made me think if ever an energy blaster could have a placeable nova? That's what it would look like. You sink your hands into the ground...energy build up. BOOM! Mob erupts and scatters! If people want 'knock down' let them have an enhancement set for that. Re; some not wanting knock back in Power Boost. Assault sets and Energy are due some attention. You can really see it and 'feel' it when you play a Water Blaster. Ice? I love ice. The new end mod regen buff is heaven. Transformational. I'm not immediately sure where the improvements could be. The end regen buff changed everything. Elec blast? Short Circuit? Faster execution? (Compared to Energy's Power Burst, it's a bit of a suicide power...even though I like Short Circuit stacking with ball of lightning. It lacks that 3rd big hitting blast power.) Azrael.

Leave the recharge longer only if the damage doesn't get nerfed like it is currently on beta. If it's nerfed so badly they need the faster recharge Ironically, I've been on my elec elec Domi. The snipe on that is fine. I don't mind thelonger recharge on that. Keep it as it is. It's fine. Seems to hit hard enough too. I wonder if it will have the 'up front' slow snipe damage too? Longer recharge as is on Domi. Shorter back to normal recharge on Blaster. That's what I feel from playing both. Look forward to playing the changes back to 12 sec on Blaster with the auto snipe changes. The Domi seems fine as is in terms of damage/recharge. I hope that makes sense. It's getting late. Azrael.

Well put. That's what I was trying to say. :) Azrael.

On the Domi's thing. Elec/Elec's End Mod draining 'skirt' toggle is visually offensive and takes up 'half the screen'. Is there any chance of looking at toning it down. (Remember when the original Sonic powers seemed to get graphically modded for inducing head aches.) It looks like a jelly fish. It's the one elec power on domi control I don't like the look of. Azrael.

Captain Powerhouse, Been over to test server again. Yes. AIM + BU + Slow Snipe hits like a truck. I do like the 'slow snipe' with the 'trim' to 2 sec. I guess I can get used to the 'in and out of combat thing for the auto. The one thing I won't miss having to hack my build to get 'insta-snipe'. But with 3 slots of tactics and AIM or BU or PB I have it most of the time. I guess I've just got used to playing that way. Again, I guess we'll see how it plays when the recharge time goes back to 12 secs. The one thing I would say. I think the 'quick on the draw' snipe animation looks cooler on live. Having an arm wobble for the slow snipe shows you're concentration to put more damage into it. Where as I feel the current draw (technical stuff aside) on the instant-snipe on 'live' has a cooler end result? Ergo? 'Look how quick he is on the draw.' Wild west style. Elbows up in a split second. Ker-POW! 'Don't mess with.' Not sure having your arm out straight for a quick snipe is necessary. Technically it may be right. But then it just looks like the slow snipe to me. It plays 'ok' like that. (The extra recharge compounds my perception of it. But I have tried looking at both from different camera view angles on both servers to see what you meant in your explanation. Which I get.) But I like the 'perceptional' in the blink of the eye 'he's fast' style. His elbow is in the cocked position and off it flies straight away. It seems to have more visual 'kick.' I spend a half a sec or so admiring it. :) Azrael.

Note there is the context of the shutdown there. They got fired, Millar wanted to push the issue so those last few weeks of uptime everyone could play with what was done without the limitations of the singular test server. I doubt he would had tried to push it as it was without more work had the game not been abruptly shut down. Hello Captain Powerhouse, Thank you for the detailed response. They sure did get 'fired.' :/ The manner of the shutdown was pure 'ignominy.' I'm certainly glad those brave 'gungans' leaked the plans of the 'deathstar...' so we could enjoy 'today.' I'm clearer on the 'delay' on the snipe now. It's a perceptional thing...due to where it is on the animation. Technically. That I understand now. That would explain why I can 'almost' count a '1 sec' before it fires. I get it now. On live the arm goes up. BOOM! And congratulate yourself on a snipe well done. ON Test? Arm wobble, slight pause, pull. For a quick snipe? See below. To me, in play, in my perception? On live? It looked like a quick hip trigger and me admiring my handiwork after. Arm triggers up straight away. Ker-power. "I'm looking good." On the test. 'Arm wobble' 'POW!'. I can mentally see the difference in the animations. aha. Though I'll go onto the servers and do a quick check. But I think I get it now. Perceptionally, I think I prefer the current live method. Keep the arm wobble for the 'slow' initial snipe. And keep the 'hip' pull for the quick snipe. :) Whether it's 'technically' proper or not is another matter. In practice I thought it looked cool. Perceptionally, I didn't notice that I 'stood' or 'hovered' (in my case. Been doing alot of 'fly' not even 'hover' but fly sniping. It's great! Drift near a mob. HIP PULL!) there for the rest of the activation time. I was too busy 'looking good' to notice. :D 'Pull!' Quick snipe. Dead. 'PULL!' Quick snipe. Nearly dead. 'Pull...' snipe finished him off. Have it with ketchup, nova, ex blast, energy punch, fries...power burst, onions. Snipe to go. What's not to like? Regards, Azrael. PS. I'll try the annoying Lieu with AIM+BU on the initial snipe. :D (I'm still in the habit of spreading aim or bu or PB out to get the insta-most of the time...) PPS. I remember when Power Burst was really short. It was annoying. Having to 'step into' range of melee mobs then get my head kicked around in a sock.

Reducing the charge to how it was is a good idea. Decreasing the range and increasing the recharge seemed like obvious steps back to me. The idea of a faster snipe to make it charge longer...to use it...seems counter intuitive to me. On live, it plays beautifully. The devs got that right, i24 beta or not. Putting the range back makes perfect sense (ie. It's a snipe...you play mostly at range...so chasing after runners seems...kind a....) I can't speak for PVP. Or want to. I don't like gameplay where I'm running around playing hide and seek. I tried CoH pvp. Never liked it. It appeals to other players who like that. I guess. Inreased recharge for damage. Seemed like a nerf on blasters. Though I have noted the ojections by Dominators (the final archetype I played on live). Solution? Keep the domi recharge as it is (for the increased damage as the domi' damage seems very 'tippy tappy' as is. So the idea is to hit hard when you 'do' hit. As it's not just an attack chain there...it's controls AND attack chains. So, I can see where Domi's are coming from. For blasters. I have no mitigation so I have to hit and keep hitting hard. (As a knbk blaster, the mitigation of knbk is so unreliable that a quick snipe has been transformative. Seriously. I've done things in Bricks and Founders that I couldn't have done without an 'insta-snipe.' The motivation to make a more varied attack chain from a longer recharge 'may' be a motivation. But I found that it was counter to that in practice. I was so used to having snipe 'up' more often without the '3 second' activation and 'hey, the Vamp...nudged me...' hassle that I could... Power Thrust snipe. Nova snipe. Exploding Blast snipe. Power Burst snipe. Torrent snipe. Snipe energy punch Snipe Bonesmasher.... Snipe Power Burst Energy Punch... Any combination. I could pick and choose. Instinctually. I don't have a set attack chain. I like the variety. I'm not an IO power build tweaker. So I don't have a set way of taking down something. I like a ten pence mix...I might pick a cola bottle this time...or a shrimp next time.... But I like my auto-shrimp. I've been back from test and live a few times. It may say cast time 1.33 but on test it still feels like there's a slight delay before it triggers. I still miss AIM/BUILD UP and POWER BOOST to activate the auto-snipe mode. Can't you just leave that in as a manual over ride? The code is there on live. Why not leave it in..? For those that want 'auto' let them do that. For those that want to 'trigger' the snipe themselves? Let them have that. For Domi's that want a longer recharge and a heavier snipe? Leave it as is. I can understand that. All that minor damage from your controls (no forklift truck in the elec controls...) and the 'feels' like mediocre damage in your assault set... The snipe much be like water in hot, sandy place... I've taken Tacitcs on my Domi to boost acc on the controls without having to use loads of slots for double SO acc. And I've taken Assault to boost the 'so-so' (feels like...) damage. The snipe feels 'ok'. Don't feel like a truck to me. But it's fun to play. I just x1 +0 my missions. With SOs I'm now doing better. I keep that setting so I can baseline by progression of SO slots for damage. I slot for x1 across powers. Test. Then x2 across powers. Test. x3 slot across powers. Test. So that way. I can appreciate any boost in damage relative to TOs...DOs...etc. I don't go from 1 to x3 slots. As I'll have no appreciation for what's inbetween. Yeah. Using tactics to get the damage back from the test. Sure. I could live with that. Again. I'll repeat. The trimming of slow snipe is 'thank god.' Thank you god. or SCORE. Or whoever is in charge of trimming that to 2 sec. I dig the 'SNIPE!' When it happens. Fun stuff. Auto mode democratising insta-snipe is fine 'in principal.' (I currently have 18 slots in snipe, tactics and aim and build up. ANd I still don't have an auto-snipe. It's kinda of ridiculous. I bought the Kismet IO and guess where I slotted it? PFF. It was the ONLY defence power I had. That sucks. So when I turn my PFF on. I have 'perma-auto-insta-snipe...but I can't use it. :P When I turn it off? the IO turns off. No one said I had to have a defence power to slot that stupid Kismet IO. Obvious? Not to me it wasn't. I was ready for cobbing it all in the bin. And ergo. There is the point. So, I know where SCORE are coming from. I have to either hack powers out of my build to have fighting pool for weave or hack out a power for cj or hack out flight for hover to slot that IO. I'll have to respec to do that. So that's hacking powers out and 18 slots. Just for insta-snipe? Grrrr. So, yes. I've always been against this pay wall of IOs. I feel that while IO builds can get greater than hasten speeds...of recharge I don't think perma-hasten should be behind a pay wall of IOs either. I never did agree with i4 nerfing perma-hasten. Energy was fun back then. Slowing it down? What did it have less? Erratic mitigation of knbk. So-so hitting power for a single target blaster. A slow snipe. A slow 'big' melee attack. It just seemed like hard work post l35. When malta, sappers could end drain you...stunned easily, de-toggled easy....expensive end... Big list of complaints....yeah and the dev's didn't call...or send me flowers... :P) I don't like... The removal of aim/bu or PBoost to activate it. (I'm not saying that you can't have an auto mode without those. Does it have to be either or? Can't we have both? Ie. When you're out side of combat range...you hit aim, build up or P boost to 'get it on.' Ie. YOu enter combat mode by accident or intent? It's auto. ie 2. If you're OUTside of combat model and want to bypass 'slow snipe' you can DO SO by hitting aim/build up/P Boost or by popping an aim? ie. 3. You want the slow snipe? Just hit snipe for the truck damage. As for SCORE's development. It's their perogative. Every server or devs in this NEW ERA of democratised COH community will have their own flavour. They broadly come from the same place of wanting to keep the game alive and making it better. I guess, sooner or later, any dev' may do something(!) you don't like. But there is choice out there. That's a good thing. SCORE have good taste. And you can read from their posts that they aware of the pros and cons of what they are doing. It's not something they do lightly. There's risks with every step forward. Their bug fixing has been a relevation. The graphics fixes great. The servers? Smooth as butter. The snipe 'fix' drew a very narrowed eye scrutiny from me. ie. I haven't been playing this snipe for 6 years. I was really looking forward to this. And it was going to be 'fixed.' I was enjoying something and 'they had to fix it?' I cried. Leandro has said, technically, under the hood there's two snipes. (Not something a non-programmer like myself would know...) I guess, yes. Slow and fast. And how it is on live? It plays fine like that. I barely use the 'slow' snipe. And that, one could argue, is flawed. So they trimmed the cast time and added damage. And we get a 'cool' SNIPE! I can't argue with that. I like it. I can see situations of 'judgement' where you'd use that. eg. To put the smack down on a boss or lieu. Or a freak tank if you're me. So, there is the intimation that perhaps the snipe work was 'unfinished.' Perhaps. Matt Millar (on his 'final' farewell interview) said they wanted to push out that beta to release. There were some bugs. Paragon wanted to do it as a farewell issue. NC wouldn't allow it. And so we'd have had snipe in it's current state on Home coming live. That said. Who's to say it wouldn't have been rebalanced or tweaked in some way. All I can say is how it 'feels.' Blasters need to be quick. A longer charging snipe doesn't make sense when you're trying to make it 'insta' or trim the opening attack. It grinds the cog wheels of the attack chain. (Which on live? Play sublimely. Variety. Fast. INSTANT! Apart from the initial....slow.....old...snipe.) There's lots of good so far on test. But I really want to test the 'old' or the 'present' recharge time with the new auto feature. I'd like to see SCORE leave the 'manual' mode in for an 'over ride' mode out of combat. So if I want a 'quick' lower damage snipe I can choose to have that as my up front attack. AND? And choose when to activate the auto mode in battle. I'm not asking for much? I'm so demanding. :P Azrael.