Novacat

Well while I did like the old style, it's an old Dr.Who reference. Could use without all the notifications though, guessing I'll be able to turn those off in the options.

Ah, you've redecorated! I don't like it.

Got some good stuff but that also makes it feel 'intensive' - hard to fit in pool powers and travel powers afterwards. A lot of its powers add a very mild -regen, but hey, that does add up over time. Quite nicely with Beam Rifle as well. Time Wall is a no-damage starter, which lowers your ability to kill things while mezzed... but with -60% recharge you're inflicting some serious slowdown. It's marginally (very) stronger than web grenade on that front, but web's slated to get some light damage later. On the other hand Time Wall buffs your other Temporal debuffs. Aging Touch is the ST-melee I do use out of the set. It's a fast hit, it's pretty average psionic damage: Temporal isn't the blappiest set but this works well enough for when you need an alternate damage type from your primary (like if you're all energy or something). It works well enough. Time Stop. Single target hold, but interestingly it can get an extra Mag-1 for half the duration if the target's already under Time Wall. It does no damage, so overall it's pretty average. Chronos: Less damage than Build-Up, but +30% recharge for its duration so whatever you fire off comes back a wee bit faster including Chronos itself. End of Time: I like this one. Cold and Energy damage, a bit of -regen, an extra 1/4 or so damage on delayed targets, and radius 10 around you. No real bells and whistles, it just... works. Doesn't let me down. Obviously Temporal healing you take no questions asked. That's your level 20, you take it at level 20, and you'll probably have difficulty keeping yourself from putting a fifth or sixth slot in there. Stick your procs/globals in health and stamina, get this thing's absorb and recover nice and high. Future Pain is just skippable to me. Rare are the Blaster's other sources of fear, so for a lot of set combos this thing would be alone. And it's otherwise not that impressive. Can't bring myself to care. Time Shift kinda depends: Many Blast sets offer more disorients. So if they do, this one's another AoE to stack with Overcharge or whatever. If you've no other stuns however (it's rare but it could happen) you might want to skip it and keep the space for something else. But if you do have other stuns this has a very light -to-hit (more for slotting categories than anything else) and further -movement speeds (add it to whirlpool or your rains). And you take Time Lord, you'd be crazy not to. It's not something to slot for the actual resistance much (7% energy only), but it's at LEAST one extra slot to stick a resistance global in and hey, -2.77 stun mag too!

For fast mode it's definitely the cones. That's some serious width thanks to the extra range which means that from otherwise normal-shot range you're also catching the whole group inside your cone. Slow mode, it's the snipes themselves, targeted and location AoEs, and therefore the ranged nukes, that benefit the most. If I'm over 120ft away

The fact that we've all gotten *used* to it (well, many of us - just a few weeks ago I was still seeing questions from people who'd put a whole bunch of accuracy in their snipes and couldn't understand why it still wasn't turning yellow) doesn't mean it was not a poor execution. There were two problems. Targeting Drone lost a lot of value due to accuracy in all those IO damage sets, and blast sets with snipes were generally inferior to those without due to that power itself. The >22% to-hit solution was a first-time first-try in the process of fixing an AT who'd spent more than 20 issues being told "you can't not-suck that would be stepping on anyone else's toes", with more than a little "you're fine, learn to play, devs don't buff them no matter what". And it was a valiant first shot, but it fell short as a solution: Secondaries other than /Devices had snipes because snipes are in the primary, and "everyone needs to 3-slot tactics and get Kismet" is a half-assed cookiecutter of a workaround if we've ever seen one, especially as a fix for the basic mechanics of a power whose basic mechanics were where it was having a problem. With the Fast/Slow baked into the power itself, the snipe is now self-contained. It works on its own. You don't need either a specific secondary OR a specific IO AND A POOL POWER WITH 3 SLOTS DEDICATED TO IT to gain the snipe's basic functionality. Other powers can make it better, much better, but this rectifies a bad early design. And because Targeting Drone had been made the slap-patch for all this, it's becoming a global +recharge to compensate, and STILL is the cheapest easiest way to buff the damage of said snipes. There may - probably even - be better alternatives or solutions. By all means suggest them! And if Dominators need fixes that aren't quite the same as the blasters, that's fine too and maybe they can get those instead! But "it was better for everyone the way it was in its first iteration on i24 beta server when the game shut down" is simply not true. P.S: LRM needs Snipe-treatments badly (and either half the recharge or double the damage since even for an epic it's half the values it should have).

Woohoo! That mean we can expect a new patch in the next few days by any chance?

Not just fun, strong too. Tis not for those with blapping on the brain of course, but everyone you blinded before the fight even began will be held and/or completely drained of endurance and covered in toxic glue within seconds. And them buffs...

Damage variance could be achieved through a bit of playing with the 'states' of the toxins/acids. Dealing maybe half up-front and the rest over 3-6 seconds depending would probably be a good idea though, yeah. -Toxic Wasteland could build up a few ticks then explode with fire damage. -Venom sprays frozen crystals, dealing mostly Cold and Lethal as they shatter on impact, leaving the strong toxic DoT in victims as they thaw. -Acid Splash likely bowls its initial target over as pops like a balloon when kicked at breakneck speed, splorching vitriolic supercooled sludge across those behind him. -Euthanize is like those silly 40k 'Needle' weapons, where a thin beam (energy damage) acts as a channel for the lance of poisonous material that follows. Rather than front or back-loaded it's mid-loaded: Light damage on the spot, a heavy hit and then the DoT to complete the whole process.

If I can make a few suggestions: 1) Short/Long/Verylong or "Weak/Strong/High/Moderate/Extreme"(the damage ones) should probably just be dumped. There's plenty of cases where "moderate" damage is higher than "high" because those descriptions were EITHER purposefully misleading when they were first written up OR simply ignored as beta balances went on leading to powers unrelated to their descripts. As such, those words mean nothing, best to just note a rough idea of damage at multiplier 1 and level 50, recharge time in seconds and range/radius in feet. 2) There is unfortunately no resistance debuff set category. 3) Sniper attacks also qualify for single target ranged at a minimum. 4) infection's not a reason to use knockback, in fact that's a risk of separating things away from each-other. What you want is someone else that uses taunt, rather. I do like the thought of 2 snipes (one aoe), but overall blast sets are generally identical for all ATs save for snipers getting swapped in Sentinels, and low/no-damage single target holds becoming tier 3 blasts with a hold in them as well. This also means there's no reason to mark down everyone's levels - this is something that's made automatic by the power's location in the set and whether it's being equipped as a primary or secondary.

The single target holds such as Tesla Cage and Bitter Freeze Ray get heavy damage. Snipes as you've noticed get replaced - in some cases (Dark/Beam) by an area effect, in others with just a quick-firing ability, basically an 80ft perma-fast-snipe. The secondaries are also mixed up a little by the way; numbers just a tweak lower than scrapper/stalker, and the sets themselves a little juggled around as well.

Water most exemplifies the strength of a Sentinel over the melee archetypes. It also at the same time showcases some of its weaknesses compared to a Blaster (though it also clearly shows how the drawbacks are overwhelmed by the advantages in practice). This is because Water is overwhelmingly AoE. How many Scrappers can hit ten guys at a time in a 20ft radius? How many Brutes can take two guys 30ft apart out with a single melee cone? But the Sentinel can. Likewise, in large high level groups those target caps and lower base damage can make themselves rather felt. Hitting 2/3 of the enemies instead of all of them is still great, but you can't *not* notice it. Beam's probably the other big Sentinel special, due to adding the Refractor beam where other Beam Rifle users have no such thing. The set handles spectacularly with the missing "ball" suddenly thrown in.

Guess that's been delaying further patches too. We'll just have to wait for delicious snipes.

You can if they're both +1 (or one's +2) AND you take a grade 3+ Resilient Alpha (the alphas that grant accuracy instead of to-hit buff won't help you here). You'd still be a teeny bit short with +5 50 IOs too without the Alpha.

Start with Snap Shot and obviously Electrified Net Arrow. The latter should be your opener for now as it's a DoT. Shoot it first. It's higher accuracy anyways - one of the best T1s in the blaster secondaries. After punching 3-4 enemies just outside your starting point you'll reach level 2, so here's where you have a choice. - Glue Arrow is a strong long DoT that slows and really screws everyone in the area - the tighter packs in DFB get slaughtered in this stuff once you learn to choose targets so as to place it well. It slows, kills recharge, but it's also got a 45s cooldown of its own. You'll want this ... but maybe not FIRST. - Fistful of Arrows is reusable every 8 seconds, and may be preferable this early on. It's a 30 degree cone with range 50 - rather average, nothing special, hits things in its reach just a teeny bit harder than your Snap Shot does. Still, it's AoE, so the more you hit the more valuable it is. Now you do DFB two or maybe three times. That ought to get you into the 12-15 range with ease. Level 4: Seeing as you have no other single target holds, I find Ice Arrow quite skippable. Its -recharge is nothing to write home about, its damage is pathetic, its duration unimpressive - Time to get Glue Arrow perhaps. It's not bad at all - though admittedly it's better once you can put some recharge rate in there and use it every fight. - Or get your first pool power Maneuvers might be a bit end-intensive for now but if you're feeling alright with that go for it, otherwise maybe get started on Fighting by grabbing Boxing or Kick. You will probably never use or slot Boxing or Kick, but you'll need one of the two to unlock Tough and Weave later, so hey. Level 6: Blazing Arrow is your T3. Your heavy attack. You get this. It's BARELY slower to cast than "aimed shot" would've been and hits twice as hard. Bit more recharge time and endurance cost but well worth it. So you already now have three solid single target attacks. The first two are quick and usable when you're stunned/asleep/etc, and if you're not, Blazing Arrow should either be your opener if you think it'll kill the minion outright, or halfway done firing by the time the giant parasol you tossed at them (Let's be honest with ourselves, Electric Net Arrow is ... visible) 8 and 10 bring Aim and Upshot. Both are good things. Both vastly upgrade your alpha-strikes. You're still low and relatively unslotted, so these are phenomenal (62.5% and 100% respectively) damage buffs. They also improve chance to hit but that's not the real meat of their value (later, a small to-hit in Upshot will qualify it for insta-snipes the same way aim does, keep that in mind for later on). Blazing Arrow becomes a murder blast, cone and glue will melt entire groups... use'em together if you want to make damn sure as much dies as possible, or stagger and cycle them to greatly improve separate fights when the going's safe and quick enough (like in a group doing death from below). Explosive Arrow at 12 is a radial AoE. Another tool in your "murder gangs" arsenal. And you ARE a blaster - other ATs can easily approach or match (or sometimes even surpass slightly) your single-target capabilities once they jump in, but YOU can wipe out a dozen minions in two AoEs under build-up, with LTs in bad shape and bosses having lost a chunk. Explosive Arrow. Consider Knockback to Knockdown but otherwise enjoy. Things on their ass aren't hurting you or your friends.... and are probably sitting in poison glue. Now you're finishing up the DFB runs (it took like, 45 minutes tops and you've done it three damned times). From here you'll want to be doing DIB (another 'low level task force' for rapid levelling that's often up) or positron's TFs and other, basically when it comes to leveling anything a group will help you go faster, which you probably wouldn't have asked "the best way" if you were doing storylines with contacts (doing that and radio missions is perfectly fine, just, not as fast is all). You'll be getting the hang of your abilities pretty quick, so here's just a few more as you begin to enter "the mid-levels": - Flash Arrow: You might not take this at 16, but you should not forget it exists later on. This massacres perception and mildly debuffs to-hit on everything in its massive radius. It does NOT aggro. This lets you stealth and get close (actually it lets you get fairly close even without stealth). It reduces the ability of enemies (groups or wandering individuals) to join in on a fight when you aggro something because they're all half blind as well. And it's about a minute worth of -ToHit you can later slot into the 6-8% penalty range. Not something you'll probably ever 6-slot but consider letting it have one of your power slots one day. Flash arrow is weak and yet incredibly versatile. - Ranged Shot is your sniper. When under quick-snipe (at the moment being "at" - more like 'over' 22% to-hit bonus) it's a brutal alternative to snap-shot whenever it's up; as quickly shot for a bit over twice the damage. Not quite Blazing Arrow but something nice to alternate it with. Finally we get to level 20. Eagle Eye is your sustain, so it's basically a non-negotiable affair: you take that right away. Massive health regen, double stamina, and 20% Accuracy (on already-accurate archery attacks) the global procs will be going into Health and Stamina - this thing deserves the % value enhancements you can put there. And between this and Archery's base acc all your attacks are as good already as if any other set combo had slotted an accuracy SO in each attack. Obviously Rain of Arrows, Agility and Gymnastics you'll be taking as time goes on, but give consideration - perhaps (like flash arrow) not immediately at 35 to ESD Arrow: not many blaster sets have an area hold, its drain can be slotted to completely drain even level minions and then some depending on which alpha slot you'll take later, and it does decent damage to mechanicals. Throwing a slotted ESD (its base is 55%, same as Thunderous Blast and better than Short Circuit) into a group can knock half of it out of commission for a bit, and those that aren't held other than the boss may be drained dry for a few seconds as well. Ample time to chew through the lot of them and it stacks nicely with controllers and electric users both. Task Forces, certain Architect team missions, and big teams. You will level at a very steady pace, armed with pretty impressive self buffs and good attacks.

Quite so. None of the i24 changes ever left beta. Personally I'm quite sure many of them were just quick-fix patchjobs while more elegant permanent solutions were figured out. So, it's up to new groups to decide where they think what refinements were going to be needed or added in the end.

Well, a decent amount of stuff will have survived and be very, very angry at +4/x8. Throw in your Judgement and an AoE for good measure or you might not like the return-fire.

Yeah try it out, it actually does alright damage on its own, a lot like Leaping's "Spring Attack" or Electrical Melee's Lightning Rod (not as strong per charge though). But you can triple-tap the thing to really screw the group up quite nicely.

Far as I know the highest DPA is actually Electric Manipulation. Total Focus and Positronic Fist may blow it out of the water on the actual hit, but their animation times are rather high. Time offers excellent DPS though.

I'd have to spend some time again on the test server to get you some numbers (used to have'em though) but it's actually more like half-assed Gaussian's Chance of Build-Up. As I remember it, you get a small proc chance with every attack that for a few seconds you'll get a moderate buff. It's auto and will balance out not too bad in long fights, but because it's uncontrollable and short in duration when it does trigger it's not something you can rely on in the least. Since it's auto you may as well take it, but personally I find that what Martial gets in exchange for Build-Up isn't Reach for the Limit ... It's Burst of Speed. You may already have tried it out, but if you haven't done so or haven't done so extensively, it's a good-ranged teleport with 3 charges and a fast casting time per charge, which does moderate damage in a small (10ish feet? It's one of those where the details don't show properly) radius each time. Not only is this immensely versatile but it's also rather proc-friendly due to being separate activations and can be spread or focused as you need it.

Cutting Beam is 30 degrees, range 50 IIRC (I specced out from it a while back so I might be off) DEFINITELY not 120, though it's very bright and visible so often looks larger than others who rely on "did the damage numbers pop up or not" for whether something was caught in it.

Hell Fast-Snipes were originally what the game's devs (guess they also were "amateur devs that din't actually know how to build a successful MMO or maintain a thriving MMO community") decided to try to help close the gap between sets that had snipes and sets that had bitter ice blast. The new take on fast/slow snipes refines these changes which due to the game getting shut down were little more than a first-pass at fixing the problem. The changes on beta here were mostly quite positive. Sets cycled smoother, output went up, good stuff.

Unless you've got another source of fear somewhere, probably the most skippable would be that one. The PBAoE ain't bad.

Each of the two sets is/will-be better than they used to be especially with the changes up on beta. However, much as the combination's plenty viable, those same changes mean that at this time they're even better if not together - whether this remains so will depend on the alleged damage buff mounted on targeting drone. For the moment the reason's as atletikus points out: You neither have a full-fledged nuke (not that full-auto's BAD) NOR aim NOR build-up. So, say you're soloing for example, your ability to slaughter all but one (one's bound to get missed) minions, red-line the Lt and chop off a good third from the boss as your opener is nonexistent: they ALL get to fire back once or twice unless you slot your toebombs heavily and time your M30 to match the explosion (easy enough, mind). Whereas someone who can trigger Inferno or Nova right after putting down that tripmine probably has nothing but a half-dead boss left to deal with, and when on a team doesn't have to slow and wait (lest their biggest attacks are left unused) for the whole time.

Admittedly though, the Blaster sets aren't nearly as nice as some other ones like the squids (boost for all three forms) Soldier of Arachnos (whose damage proc is global), Stalker or Sentinel.

Unfortunately you cannot skip Immobilizing Dart. Despite being a DoT most T1 immobilizes hit harder and cast faster Sting of the Wasp is pure trash. It's one of the weakest early melees for blaster secondaries and offers nothing but a paltry -7% def as its 'special'. Choking Powder's not bad at all. It has a quick cast and does alright damage. Shinobi's your stealth, and also a very, very mild damage buff (a bit more every 30s which you should make sure gets used on your nuke as an opener when the opportunity arises). It's not nearly as good for damage as having Aim let-alone Build-Up though - less buff, less attacks (just one instead of all for 10s), and potentially less often (depending on your haste and recharges). Still, it's what you've got. The Lotus Drops may not hit all that hard but it IS a PBAoE and actually hits harder than Sting up there even against single targets. Not a bad choice here, not a bad attack at all really. Plus it's an opportunity to stick a different purple category into right? Kujin-Toh is your Sustain, so it's your level 20 power. Not 22, not 24, 20. It's perma out of the box so feel free to auto-set it and forget it, instead focusing those slots on the health and endurance it offers (As a blaster health and stamina are better places to put the globals like Panacea's or Performance Shifter as the numbers they offer are way lower than what an enhancement does to your Sustain). Smoke Flash isn't terrible - it can buy you a few seconds of not being shot and inflicts -res. It's a 20ft radius which isn't terrible. Blinding Powder I personally think is none too good: too weak on both the sleep and confuse magnitudes, plus confuse can steal XP away so some groups dislike it. It would be fun in the flash-arrow or smoke grenade way except it's a deathly short cone with too small an angle to be of much use with such short range, doesn't last all that long, and has too long a recharge time to actually stack up on its own. Golden Dragonfly's a good one. Ultra-short as far as cones go but pretty good sized for a melee one, and has a decent level of damage with alright casting time. Now granted Water's not the strongest single target affair either, but you can leave that to others in a team or focus on bigass groups instead of higher levels when solo. You've got one of the best cones available (hits nearly at T3 blast levels) and can double-tap water jet for decent-ish single target output. With a well slotted sustain your Recovery will easily allow you to use a few AoEs against single targets in a way pretty much no other AT can. Some Sentinel secondaries can let'em come close but even then nowhere near as easily. So that means you can consider Steam and Golden Dragonfly for use in this fashion. Archvillains might be a bit of a problem if you're not IO'd up, but just get an ST-happy buddy: YOU will be clearing rooms like nobody's business.