Sancerre

the power genomic evolution says it grants an increase range buff while offensive adaptation is active, but it doesnt feel like it at all. ive literally tested taking baby steps turning offensive adaptation on and off and it seems to have 0 effect on range. conversely, the effects of +range on aim are immediately noticeable (with the skill noting +33% range). it also says you gain max endurance with efficient adaptation active. so i have 110 max endurance with efficient adaptation off and 110 max endurance with efficient adaptation on. so thats a pretty clear case of it not working. cant really test the "bonus resistances" for defensive adaptation too easily, but id wager they dont work as well. is this skill just bugged or am i crazy?

its odd you would even bring up overpowered. The set as a whole is extremely stylish visually but lacking in comparison numbers wise. As far as PvE goes, there really isnt much reason to use swap rounds for anything but incendiary... and you are trading Aim for that. Even then, the damage isnt screaming OP, its merely on par with other sets not named fire. Or i guess you might prefer the highly resisted lethal damage (which many would argue assault rifle is ONLY "bad" because it is majority lethal damage) so some of your skills can have knockdown/knockback and then the whole idea of flexibility with swap ammo is gone anyways. aside from that you are trading snipe for a questionable low damage, shorter range disorient. maybe its more useful in pvp with the -recharge rounds, but then i would probably prefer ice anyways because it has better holds. the main thing is most of the other power sets have something "unique" about them whether it be range (psychic), -res (sonic), -hit (dark), or even just raw damage (lookin at you fire), but dual pistols tries to be more of the "jack of all trades" powerset. but yes indeed the set looks awesome.

if your concern is damage. the concern then is just managing fury. PBAoE auras help a lot with this (/bio has one). brutes with the fury bar past near 3/4 full are pretty much scrapper level damage. there are caveats but that is kind of the general idea. brute will be better in parties early levels because they are naturally tankier and have taunt built in. scrappers will be better solo in the early levels because you dont need to keep muscling forward to maintain your damage levels... you can actually take a break to recover and not feel like you are being punished. that said at the high end of things... it matters much less. between incarnates and IO sets, both will become extremely tanky and high damage. and while there is currently very little scrapper stigma in party creation, it could very well return... that is to say majority of the time, the party would probably feel better with a brute instead of a scrapper, but nobody particularly cares at the moment. also, i would basically recommend anything NOT titan weapons. /bio and TW both require a good bit of management that will interfere with each other. if you decide on brute, anything with another PBAoE damage aura is lovely because it builds fury.. but it is not necessary (see the current fad of super strength brutes).

Go look at the Homecoming Beta board. Based on comments and datamining on the 22% To-Hit triggering insta-Snipe, they were looking at changing Snipes to have different stats in and out of combat. Out of combat, they were the stock 'slow snipe', with a higher base damage; in combat, they would be 'fast snipes', with the damage a Snipe has now, but have their max range cut to 80m. Once you either attack or are attacked, you are 'in combat', forcing the reduced-range fast snipe until you have spent 15 seconds neither attacking nor being attacked. Along with this was a new Snipe-specific enhancement set, the sixth piece of which functionally put you in permanent fast-snipe (and nerfed range) mode. After considerable pushback on the proposal, the changes are being revised. Snipes will retain their full range throughout, and the in/out of combat timer is being reduced. Several proposals on how To-Hit will affect snipes are being kicked around, as are revisions to the new sniper enhancement set. It's not easy to describe;you should read the thread in the beta board. beta changes are as follows: -out of combat (10 second timer of not being attacked) will always have the slow interruptable snipe but it will have a noteworthy damage boost -in combat will always have instant snipes regardless. -there will be a new PvP sniper IO set. the special IO will guarantee always having instant snipes (so the out of combat snipe will be instant as well, but no damage boost). -base cooldown increased from 12 seconds to 15 seconds basically the way the build plays it will just make instant snipe more consistent and achievable much sooner. final loadout and playstyle fundamentally wont change. soul drain being a PBAoE for your big damage boost really leans away from getting a "big opener" slow snipe on a single target anyways. maybe while leveling up the big opener could be useful, but even the reliance on time juncture during early levels as your defense... i would always lean more towards just jumping ontop of them as an opener (that way more of the incoming attacks have severely reduced accuracy). so end result is that you get instant snipe immediately and in a final loadout you dont particularly need to worry about the hamidon enhancements, nor do you need to worry about timing clarion + farsight together during the first 30 seconds of clarion (although it would still be best to do so for maximum defense boost)... and we will lose about 1 second of recharge on snipe after all is said and done. i understand the concern that basically the build "comes together" and there is no real compensation for the indirect nerf compared to other ATs as well as the to-hit boosts feel like a waste now. but, at least on the /time corrupter side, i dont feel like it was really a DECIDING factor for choosing /time. it was more like a bonus. /time was and still is already amazing and really only rivaled by /kinetics and /radiation. and further it just speaks volumes for how to-hit as a stat is just bad and needed a gimmick surrounding it to be worth considering valuable. or maybe the abundance of accuracy in IO sets and availability of kismet just overshadows the need for it at all. for other ATs, i dont have much of an informed opinion (lack the experience/knowledge). I will say it will definitely also buff scrappers... which i find humorous. also im going to back to rain of fire. breath of fire pretty much *only* feels good during the first 30 seconds of clarion range boost. its otherwise to narrow and requires too much in and out for a build that leans on a PBAoE debuff aura. i would definitely note that using rain of fire without distortion field feel awful 90% of the time (so i need to remember to use that together always... as i leveled to 50 off the original build with no distortion field). together though it is quite nice. i still prefer fire blast over flares though.

my understanding is that it functions like every other proc. there is a set number of expected procs per minute listed on it and it will happen (roughly) that often. in this case it is 3 procs per minute. this will be influenced by the base cooldown of the skill modified by any recharge reduction slotted specifically into that skill. global recharge bypasses procs per minute functionality. So, a skill with a cooldown of 20 seconds (after recharge reduction in the skill specifically) would have a 90% chance to activate it (it will always have a 10% chance to not activate). a skill with a cooldown of 90 seconds would also have a 90% chance of activating it. a skill with a 10 second cooldown (after recharge reduction the skill specifically) would have a 50% chance to activate it. for final clarity... if you had a skill with a 20 second cooldown modified by GLOBAL recharge reduction (hasten and set effects typically) down to 10 seconds, that would also have a 90% chance to activate it. but personally, i think the way to approach it is to slot it into whatever small spammy skill you use a lot and hope it procs right before you use your big skills. if it procs it procs kind of thing... let it be.

i like being a scientist so i refined the build more to my liking. rearranged some slots/sets and changed out flares to fire blast (my preference) and also rain of fire to fire breath (again my preference). also the fire breath 6th slot is a floater really but i find the range bonus on it really helps to actually hit multiple enemies. i just dont like rain of fire and fire breath allows me to actually kill a pack inbetween inferno/judgement cooldown. biggest change is the zephyr set in flight and the superior avalanche over obliteration on dark consumption. also just as a general thing i guess i just dont prefer stealthing missions with superspeed (or as a travel power over flight) but having a soft stealth to reduce aggro range on sprint is good enough for me. i just find it problematic turning time juncture on and off. ++slightly higher defenses/resists (roughly .5% defense and 5%++ resists specifically to fire/cold) ++floater slot available (used for +range in fire breath, you may enjoy putting the gladiator -res back into soul drain instead) ++faster flight power ++aim added in with gaussian build up proc for more damage (dont need recharge on it because there is so much global recharge in the build) ++slightly higher status resistances (4% ish as well as some speed protection) --slightly lower max HP (20 hp) --slightly higher end consumption (.04/s) --slightly less accuracy (really doesnt matter) --slightly less damage (3%) --superior avalanche is quite a bit more expensive instead of obliteration as a general note, even with the upcoming snipe changes... i think the manticore set is still better than the new one and i dont see a need to mess around with farsight... theres really no useful/outstanding set bonus with 2-3 defense slots. the "best" you could do otherwise is do luck of the gambler 3set for the extra 12 HP and sacrifice the to-hit bonus. so may as well keep the hamidon stuff as "best" although it would realistically never be useful given the massive accuracy of attacks in general on top of having a strong to-hit buff even without the hamidon stuff, but in the fringe scenario where you get bombarded with -hit debuffs... you would still be good. Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! NeverDead: Level 50 Magic Corruptor Primary Power Set: Fire Blast Secondary Power Set: Time Manipulation Power Pool: Sorcery Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Leaping Ancillary Pool: Dark Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Fire Blast (A) Apocalypse - Damage (3) Apocalypse - Damage/Endurance (3) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative) (5) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (5) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Recharge Level 1: Time Crawl (A) Tempered Readiness - Accuracy/Endurance Level 2: Fire Ball (A) Superior Scourging Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (7) Superior Scourging Blast - Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (7) Superior Scourging Blast - RechargeTime/PBAoE +End (9) Superior Scourging Blast - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime (9) Superior Scourging Blast - Damage/RechargeTime (11) Superior Scourging Blast - Accuracy/Damage Level 4: Time's Juncture (A) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge/Endurance (15) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Endurance (15) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge (17) Dark Watcher's Despair - Recharge/Endurance Level 6: Temporal Mending (A) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb (17) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance (19) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime (19) Preventive Medicine - Endurance/RechargeTime (21) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance (21) Preventive Medicine - Heal Level 8: Spirit Ward (A) Healing IO Level 10: Hasten (A) Recharge Reduction IO Level 12: Aim (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up Level 14: Fire Breath (A) Ragnarok - Damage (23) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge (23) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (25) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge (25) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance (27) Range IO Level 16: Distortion Field (A) Slow IO Level 18: Blaze (A) Superior Malice of the Corruptor - Recharge/Chance for Negative Energy Damage (27) Superior Malice of the Corruptor - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (29) Superior Malice of the Corruptor - Accuracy/Damage (29) Superior Malice of the Corruptor - Damage/Recharge (31) Superior Malice of the Corruptor - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (31) Superior Malice of the Corruptor - Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 20: Assault (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 22: Maneuvers (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed Level 24: Mystic Flight (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points) (31) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance (33) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range Level 26: Blazing Bolt (A) Sting of the Manticore - Chance of Damage(Toxic) (33) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Endurance (33) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (34) Sting of the Manticore - Accuracy/Damage (34) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Interrupt/Recharge Level 28: Farsight (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (34) HamiO:Membrane Exposure (36) HamiO:Membrane Exposure Level 30: Rune of Protection (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% (36) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP (36) Unbreakable Guard - Endurance/RechargeTime (37) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime (37) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance Level 32: Inferno (A) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage (37) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (39) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (39) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge (39) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge (40) Obliteration - Damage Level 35: Slowed Response (A) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff Level 38: Chrono Shift (A) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery (40) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance (40) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance/Recharge (42) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Recharge (42) Numina's Convalesence - Endurance/Recharge (42) Numina's Convalesence - Heal Level 41: Dark Consumption (A) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (43) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (43) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (43) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage (45) Superior Avalanche - Recharge/Chance for Knockdown Level 44: Dark Embrace (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) (45) Aegis - Resistance/Recharge (45) Aegis - Psionic/Status Resistance (46) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance (46) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge (46) Aegis - Endurance/Recharge Level 47: Soul Drain (A) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage (48) Armageddon - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (48) Armageddon - Damage/Recharge (48) Armageddon - Accuracy/Recharge (50) Armageddon - Damage/Endurance Level 49: Combat Jumping (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (50) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage (50) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) Level 1: Brawl (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Dash (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Slide (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Quick (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Rush (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Surge (A) Empty Level 1: Scourge Level 1: Sprint (A) Unbounded Leap - +Stealth Level 2: Rest (A) Empty Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift (A) Run Speed IO Level 2: Health (A) Miracle - +Recovery (11) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance Level 2: Hurdle (A) Jumping IO Level 2: Stamina (A) Performance Shifter - EndMod (13) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End (13) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Accuracy Level 0: High Pain Threshold Level 0: Invader Level 0: Born In Battle Level 0: Marshal Level 50: Clarion Radial Epiphany Level 50: Support Core Embodiment Level 50: Cimeroran Core Superior Ally Level 50: Void Radial Final Judgement Level 50: Reactive Radial Flawless Interface Level 50: Agility Core Paragon ------------

you can have it always be instant snipe by paying a tax of 1 slot and a 10 million+ pvp IO. but hey thats cheaper than picking up tactics and slotting it up.

you have mentioned this a few times, im not sure what you are referring to. it feels exactly the same. there is no delay. I get 100 ping on indom server and 120 ping on justin. maybe you are much further away and have 200++ ping on justin?? that said, im all for beta version of snipes although it does feel like its cheapening choices. i'll eat the 3 seconds of recharge i guess. not a big deal. the range was the bigger issue for me initially. the 10 second window instead of 15 feels more intuitive as well. i wouldnt often want to open with snipe (mostly because i use soul drain) but its a more realistic gap for the standard gameplay in city of heroes, and i can still fit it in sometimes if i wanted to. i just want to remind everyone slotting out tactics to have perma instant snipe was/is NOT MANDATORY. it was an OPTION. especially for blasters that can rotate aim and build up, this is less of an issue than people make it out to be. if you WANTED perma instant snipe you had to pay the price. just like if i want higher smash/lethal resistances, i would dive into the fighting power pool and pick up tough. Nobody seems to care that hasten is essentially mandatory across the board for any sane person and is a dead-end power pool (unless you want to pick up super speed for stealth purposes). I'm NOT advocating hasten become a baseline power like the fitness tree either nor am i advocating any nerfs to hasten. I'll also remind people, most high end builds will pick up maneuvers from leadership anyways because it is an easy way to get defense and a slot for luck of the gambler global recharge. will people ONLY dump tactics or will they ALSO dump maneuvers? i kind of doubt the latter. a lot of people also love having vengeance.

glad to see the range back on a SNIPE ability. also, im not a balance/designer kind of guy, but giving targeting drone 30% recharge seems excessive. something more like 20% seems more inline with every other powerset that has a recharge bonus built in. I understand its a toggle, not a passive... but still. final note. i dont think many people mentioned it at all, but scrappers also get snipes from the patron pool. i dont imagine many scrapper builds were often utilizing high slotted tactics or even picking up snipe in the first place. but this definitely streamlines scrapper epic/patron power pools especially because shadow meld was such a strong pickup already and moonbeam is just sitting there as a pre-req. not suggesting it needs a nerf on scrappers but just find it humerous the intent is to bring blasters inline with single target damage and yet it also helps along scrappers.

i went with /elec. you get 20% recharge passive, 50% end reduction on everything and ALSO a fill your end bar clicky. solves a lot of the shortcomings of TW. overall the set is a monster if you disregard momentum. constant knockup, tons of AoE and insane single target damage, a defense buff, resistance & defense debuffs. the problem is dealing with momentum. the damage of the set during momentum is awesome. getting momentum is a problem often times. you dont get momentum when you hit absorb bubbles (even if it is a successful hit). you dont get momentum on a miss (which feels REALLY awful) -- that said, chain misses are absolutely disgusting. outside of build momentum clicky, the standard momentum window feels so short. and one of the biggest issues surrounding this is maximizing your attack windows during momentum. anytime you need to press buttons not related to momentum during your window it feels REALLY bad. all that in mind, playing in parties is often very awkward. you might as well not do anything if you dont have build momentum active because by the time you finish swinging, whatever you tried to hit will be dead and your momentum will be half gone by the time you get to the next target and then you'll have to get momentum AGAIN. overall an extremely strong set limited by an extremely frustrating momentum mechanic. as an aside, i dont know if its a bug... but pretty much every attack in the kit has a delayed aspect to it. skills swing around, make sound effects etc, and then it actually does the damage/knockups 1 second later. im not sure why because it doesnt lineup at all with whats happening visually but it can often feel bad if you were spamming a knockup skill as you die and then the mob gets knocked up right after you die.

its already been expressed before this isnt a "high end set IO requirement". also many builds utilize leadership power pool regardless... so often what you are saving here is slots. as with many RPGs there is definitely a huge enjoyment around planning out your build and seeing it come together as you grow. so you are disregarding the playerbase that enjoys that aspect with this mindset. if it was just a buff to everyone, i dont think as many people would be upset. it is a nerf to many blaster /device builds and corrupter /time builds (among others) that likely wont change anything in their builds after the update and get no compensation. i think there are just better ways to go about this.

not a big fan of the snipe concept. its a straight nerf to anyone that has built for it already... and in blaster /dev case they cant reasonably just respec out of a powerset. slow snipe will reasonably never be used because of the nature of the game... very few people will stand around for 15 seconds to wait to snipe something (especially in parties). could you perhaps make those changes tied SPECIFICALLY TO THAT IO. that way if people want it, they can have it (reduced range, increased recharge -- i guess Dom's case is more complicated). Point is you want this change available but you feel its necessary to introduce PENALTIES around it. There are some powerset combinations that will leave their general build unchanged but now just have a nerfed snipe ability. for anyone that was using tactics slotted out the wazoo to achieve instant snipe, freeing up slots might be a blessing... but the same crowd may also be upset with the reduced range and increased recharge.

interested in your thoughts on some powers: flares vs fire blast -flares has lower activation time -fire blast does more damage -either way its more of a filler attack -both recharge fast enough to not worry about whether you might not have a button to press rain of fire vs fire breath -rain of fire always sends enemies scattering in panic -can be good for defensive purposes -can be extremely annoying because stragglers are now all over the place instead of roughly grouped -fire breath cone is initially very small -with clarion boost, the range is reasonably good and the damage is quite high, even if over a couple seconds -activation time on fire breath is long general problem im feeling with rain of fire is that the damage isnt upfront and just sends them running everywhere... so i dont often feel like i want to use it.

just curious on some of the slotting choices. I thought the IOs that activate for 120s need to actually be a clicky or a toggle... not just a straight passive. so they actually work in passive skills?? Example would be Miracle +recovery in Health. also just a general question regarding time's juncture -- is this really necessary to keep on and especially slot out when you have 60%++ defense on everything? or are you more using it for the 20% damage debuff for the few attacks that do roll in? Otherwise looks awesome. giving it a try... was rough trying to solo stuff before chrono shift... but once i hit 39, the build really seems to open up and i imagine its just going to get way better with incarnate stuff and set bonuses. status effects in general, and ESPECIALLY knockdown, are a huge problem currently.

Seems like only the skills that require momentum show all of the detailed info. any of them that do not require momentum are missing A LOT of information, including secondary effects like +defense, -defense, etc. Skill with no momentum required: Skill with momentum required: