Blaze

This is due to the Blaster's T1 and T2 animation standardization back during the Defiance revamp. Fire Blast was slowed down and Flares immensely buffed. My guess is that, due to not having Defiance, the devs kept Fire Blast faster for the others, and Sentinels received the same standardization as their inherent is also partially tied to T1 and T2 blasts.

You also still gain XP when exemplared, so you can pretty much just Flashback all the soloable story content as soon as you've outleveled it. Creating an SG base just to add a Pillar of Fire and Ice makes it very easy.

The main problem I have with the knockback on a lot of PB powers is that they only have a chance for knockback so we can't really control or prepare for the powers' effects. Knockback is a lot of fun and I like it on the powers, but the lack of control of that knockback does make it troublesome. At least I can plan with my team for it when I know my powers will always scatter or have an effect.

I wanted to test the snipe changes in a way that I wouldn't have any preconceived notions of, so I rolled up my Rad/Rad Defender that I'm currently playing on Live. This character is only level 13, and I have never used Proton Volley with any instasnipe mechanics, so I felt I could get a better impression of what it was like to play with a snipe as it would be on a new character. I leveled the Defender to 17 and slotted it with reasonable slotting for the level (prestige enhancements from the P2W vendor and level 20 DOs). I did a very basic test with a +0/x0 x/ bosses police radio defeat boss mission. In the end, I'm very excited for the snipe changes on this character. The snipe was immediately useful to my Defender and the extra strength of the attack will greatly assist the long haul to Cosmic Burst as a Defender (which I always wish came earlier than 28). Radiation Blast really lacks in single target abilities early and having the snipe useful long before I could afford the power tax makes me all the more excited to get it. Defenders don't have much damage in general, so every little bit helps if you want to solo. The slow snipe portion was useful too for taking out (or at least severely damaging) an even level minion prior to debuffs being toggled. I'm sure it's just a display difference, but I wasn't expecting to get the snipe bonus show on each of the 3 hits The only downside was that I couldn't get a slow snipe after laying down debuffs because I would have then been in-combat stance.

I just got my Fire/Fire Blaster on Live to 50 recently and have only been enjoying instasnipes for a short time. After rebuilding my character on test (with some build improvements I can't do on Live yet), I really found the snipe changes made the mechanic more intuitive and in general fights didn't really change much at all with how I was playing on Live. Probably the best change is that the reticle for instasnipe always works when it was wonky if you were just borderline on your tohit values before. The slow snipe also still gives a range bonus so I can still start a fight with Blazing Bolt with the extra range. My only complaint at this point would be about the range reduction (maybe 100 for fast instead of 80), but otherwise in play it feels more intuitive than before and will greatly benefit my lower level ranged characters while leveling by giving them a strong attack without the power/slot/IO tax.

The challenge settings are only used for obtaining badges. It never increased merit rewards. https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Flashback