Joshex

I saw it in torchbearer in chat, the name seemed highlighted and contained a really long player name with global @ toonname. again I'm not sure how they managed it but it exceeded the name character cap. I wish I had a specific user to quote so we could ask them. but I only saw it in a glance and was in a rush.

thanks for the feedback. Yes the initial power may need to be toned down on some or at least less DoT on most. Well, that is true, radiation is radiation though. So the cloud/dust is appropriate. then again there are 2 types of radiation in real life, Ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation, it has to do with the structure of the atom and how it's been used or not. The core difference is one has a surplus of electrons, while others don't have enough electrons to fill the rings of the neutrons. both decay in different ways and present different effects on materials that come in contact with them. too many electrons causes heat and spreading radiation to other atoms it contacts, too few causes it to pull electrons from other materials thus destabilizing those atoms and in some cases disintegrating them or changing them into other atomic materials. Then again CoH isn't attempting to be real-world accurate so.

yes, but we need all the bases covered first in operation. beam rifle, acts like you're shooting from a rifle. re-skinning it is also something some here criticized, in fact that was the first criticism this thread got. to some reskinning things is a negative thing to do. So we need a beam set that in playstyle acts like a typical beam blaster. as stated in my last post, it'd really just be energy hit then burn the target bit of debuff, and shooting at things through walls. as far as I know there is no set with that hallmark of being able to attack when the target is blocked. that's perfectly in line with beam blasting though.

Beam rifle, is energy (pure), and has a disintegrate +special with various debuffs, such as -regen, -def, -res, and knockdown on just about everything. knockdown and disintegrate seem to be it's survival abilities, 1: knockdown meaning enemies cannot attack while down or getting up (so like a short hold every time you attack), then 2: disintegrate spreads the Energy DoT around to other targets in a contamination sorta system making every attack have potential to do a small amount of AoE causing more damage over x3 targets every time you attack meaning less trouble killing things thus less damage for every target you are able to kill more quickly and 3: very high overall damage. it is comprised of : ranged moderate, ranged High, ranged cone moderate, ranged high DoT, click: +to-hit + damage, ranged superior w/stun, sniper extreme, narrow cone ranged high, TAoE extreme w/ DoT and debuffs. Energy blasting, is energy/smash with knockback on everything. it's main survival ability seems to be knockback, like knock down it 1: deters enemies from attacking while down and getting up, whilst 2: also forcing them to ranged combat to do so and 3: a moderate amount of AoE. It is comprised of: ranged minor, ranged moderate, ranged cone moderate, short ranged high, sniper extreme, self +to-hit +damage, ranged minor w/strong knockback, TAoE Moderate, PBAoE Extreme. radiation blasting, is energy (pure) with -def tacked on to everything, with various debuffs. it's main survival abilities are 1: -def to hit more often followed by 2: AoE and 3: powerful damage. a straight forwards debuff so you can't miss then hit them with a saw blade of AoE powerful damage and everything dies so it can't hit you. it is comprised of: ranged minor, ranged moderate, close AoE Moderate w/DoT, close moderate cone, +to-hit +damage, Sniper superior, short ranged extreme, TAoE Moderate, PBAoE extreme already, just from the rough draft, beam blasting, is energy/fire (different) where fire DoT plays a similar role to disintegrate - the contagion, instead of spreading it around the fire DoT places all the damage on the target hit by it. it's survival abilities are, 1: damage debuff to enemies, 2: ability to target and attack when a target is blocked (allowing no chance to attack back till they can get around the blockage), and 3: high range to be able to hit enemies before they get close, and 4: a self stacking damage buff on every attack, 5: lots of cone/multi-target, with -1: self stacking increased end costs with every attack (the price of power). (4 total when subtracting the self debuff) listing it out, it's probably a bit OP. it has an average of 4 strong points. where others have 3. I'm also thinking the X-Ray Beam toggle should do a self -range otherwise the ability to target through walls is too OP, adding this self debuff will compensate for -1 more point making it closer and about right not OP. Hence the large range to begin with, that way when it's reduced by x-ray beam, it's still better than melee range. probably around (75ft) vs (150ft), and (200ft) vs (400ft) sniper. The shortest range attacks it'd have with x-ray on would be (62.5ft) vs (125ft) keep in mind that is extremely short range, by other sets standards (80ft) is considered "Close". still needs some working. I'll re-envision some of it. just wanted to type this out first so I have some notes to work off when not only scaling the set to be not OP, but also showing how it's different in gameplay style and statistics. cool? I mean if I even want the devs to even consider doing anything such as code to include it, it has to be realistic, right?

this is not a case of a problem or not. there is no "problem". this is a suggestion. and at current a rough draft. I'll attempt to ensure it's different from beam rifle, energy blast and radiation blast at least enough so that it can be a validly separate set. animations and effects: I'm moree than happy to do those months of work 😉 a throwing primary ranged set, I've thought about that too, it's just hard to justify what should go into it. it's be the equivalent of Super Strength blasting, I imagined a literal wrecking ball or spiked ball and chain (different weapon graphics, same attack), obviously we have throw boulder and throw object as well, knives, axes, boomerangs, bombs, swords? not saying it's a bad idea, go make a thread about it, figure out what would be best, talk about it to refine the idea. This thread is just like that, but for beam blasting.

launching a gas/radioactive dust cloud at an enemy doesn't count as a beam. energy blasting = splash splash radiation blasting = poof! poof! Beam blasting = Bolt Bolt! -this is what we are looking for a solid unwavering glowing bolt (of some sort of shape(s)) (not that it couldn't have some sort of domed aura form around it, or some sort of spikes of light etc.) I'd kinda only consider that as like a fallback after the previously acknowledged, fallback option, lets call that "Plan C" that would kinda be kinda self-defeating as a game community, reskins are considered to be poor quality player hacks. besides firing a beam from a gun gives the gun wielder different abilities/options/capabilities than firing from your hand, so again the powers would be different, as noted with Halo, a person who can control light beam bolts from thier hands could theoretically create a circular bolt around their body, or a swipe type bolt (see the Torizo's beam attacks in Super Metroid) not only that it'd be sorta a mix between beam rifle and dual pistols because from hand you have 2 hands so 2 hands to fire beam slashes in a multi strike attack. My initial PowserSet idea obviously needs some rethinks., it was just a rough draft after all. As we talk new ideas are being expressed which could change it even further. can you describe what the spectral blasts would look like? also @Leogunner, I'm not ignoring your post, you gave a lot to think about. I suppose my initial comment would be with a beam blasting powerset, you could just have an arm cannon costume part to make it more in line with what you're looking for (as I said previously we really need a selection of these!!!). rather than building another closed powserset like beamrifle for someone (like me) to complain or suggest that we should have a "from hand" beam Powerset, without the cannon. as for the power ideas, that's something to think about for a future post. and I may take them into account while regrafting my own beam blasting powerset idea. I'll be working on the 1st draft later today if I get time.

We definitely need an arm cannon costume piece or 2. Orion as a CoH character is more than overdue. you make some valid points in the second paragraph too, Sniper attacks, for the sake of fairness, there has to be an interrupt time of some amount. during charging it up. even if it's really short. there are many enemy groups who have such attacks, knowing what to look for and how to strike them to stop it is imperative for squishies. such as when a skyraider doesn't attack and goes to kneel down, they are summoning the bubble +def +res pet, there is a very short interrupt, but if you catch it, no bubble. same can be said for many sniper attacks. remember making players tougher will eventually pass on some of these abilities to mobs (new groups) etc. would you want a mob with an uninterruptible sniper? the toggle, I thought of that but decided it's probably more thematic to have each attack buff the next. rather than a special ability of one PSet, I thought a charging power would be more suitable to it's own AT as the Inherent power. honestly thats how I would have done sentinels.

great ideas! I hadn't thought of that. tech it could be a satellite, magic it could be a beam from the heavens or something. while I want to try to agree with you in spirit, that would be reskinning other powersets, granted it might be easier, but the powers would act like whatever set you put the beam clothes on. not saying no, it's a fallback plan I suppose.

nope, this discussion progressed, people asked questions and made comments I responded to those appropriately, some were not about afterburner, some were not about blasters, some were not about electric blasting. that's why this convo is all over the place. I understand some people are trying to help. I understand you're trying to give advice, but I had my reasons for doing and not doing what I did or didn't do before making this thread. This thread was asking for a quick fix to face-planting occassionaly when at min diff it should be survivable. I'm not faceplanting often, it just bothers me that it's happening about every few missions in the 20's. maybe thats what blasters are about. and thats my point. they should be at least tough enough that when enhanced to level or +3 with DOs and SOs with a decent amount of survival pools, even a surprise ambush or large mob should not be able to actually threaten someone to die even rarely at min difficulty when all proper pacing and precautions are being taken to the best level possible.

Fair points about different origin guns, but what about characters like Samus Aran with spazer or plasma or wave beam? what about one piece's admiral kizaru with his light speed attacks and barrages of beams?, Goku from dragon ball super saiyan?, Ryu from street fighter?. there are other things out there than what we have the means to do right now and other things out there than beam rifles.. the goal of CoH was to progress as much as possible to be able to cover all the power type bases eventually. Beam never really got there, there was support for it, but the devs had other focuses, new ats, new zones, new control sets, new armor, new pets, the list goes on. doesn't mean they wouldn't have eventually done something to this effect. Not trying to argue here, not sure if you got what I was saying here, but this isn't a request to degun beam rifle. this is to make a beam blasting power set, it will have a different focus than beam rifle, different attack distributions. a Beam energy AoE for example. develop art assets, if art assets need developing for this, I'd be happy to do them, a glowing energy ring is easy enough, there might already be one in game just scale it to AoE size and use it in a distribution similar to PBAoE healing auras but with more of a charge then shove arms out to the sides kinda animation. the other beam graphics could be in the game already, maybe, maybe just need some scaling. otherwise if they need I'd be happy to make and supply graphics and textures for such. unarmed variant (not what I'm aiming for, it should be significantly different from rifle in presentation and stat focus, the names and way they are used will not be "about being armed" this is not just a reskin, this is a different set.) I based the damage listings off electric blasting, fire blasting is sorta high too, both have an enemy -end debuff. however fire and electric also have a damage buff power, after thinking about beam blasting, I thought it's be more appropriate to not actually supply a damage buff power, [Xray Beam] only supplies accuracy and tohit, no damage buff so the damage buff needs to be on each power, stack and last for some general amount of time, but because it's on each power there should also be a penalty for stacking too much, this was handled with stacking increased end costs for all powers. the idea was, sure your damage grows as you attack, and you have incredible damage, your accuracy is decent, not as great as Aim or variants, and sure you debuff enemies a little with each hit, but not only can these debuffs be minor in most cases (toned down to be appropriate so it's not OP), but also the more you attack the more it costs to do so, eventually you end up sapping yourself if you go at it too hot and fast. Notice I did not put end costs, consider them to be relatively high to begin with matching the damage intensity. moderate damage? moderate end cost. superior damage? superior end cost. now imagine a self end cost debuff stacking every time you attack. superior end cost +1x minor, then moderate end cost + 2x minor , then +3x minor end cost, then 4x, then 5x, still not worn off? 6x 7x. eventually this PSet would have to take a breather not for end to recharge but for the self debuffs to wear off. At early levels where end is precious because recovery is low, this would mean every 3 or 4 attacks you'd have to stop and wait a sec or sap yourself empty 1 attack at a time. Higher levels where there's some enhanced recovery; getting in the first 3 or 4 attacks will start the drain, then maybe another 3 and you're surpassing your recovery. 40+ sets and bonuses, even then lets say the debuffs stack for 60 seconds, that's like 10 to 13 attacks, that's a stack of minor end cost x13 even at minor end cost of 1 end, that's 13 end tacked on to every attack's own cost. my build at current gets about 36 end per second. that means about 23 end per second is left for the attack itself's cost (probably like 6 to 30 depending on the power), then toggles like the Xray toggle I propose, maybe 1 end a sec, you're looking at (20 to 43 end a sec without other toggles and enemy debuffs, this means having to pace yourself, and choose when to use the big attacks. keep in mind this self increased end cost will ignore endurance discounts in theory. in summary, a whole lot of power very quickly, then rest. and rest. sounds fair to me. blue insps would be this PSet's requirement to keep going non-stop.

We all know there's beam rifle, but.. yeah it just feels better for some of us to fire it from our hands. and more thematic and origin neutral from hands as well. where as it'd be a stretch to call it a magic, science or mutant gun...... then there's energy blasting, the knock back centric splashy energy bullets. yeah it's balls of energy but it's still not a beam. So, other that graphically different, what would be the statistical or focus differences between these? Beam, as implied by light, would be fast, short recharge times, short activation times, fast striking, ability to chain attacks quickly and enhance or stack more effects on the enemy and or yourself. what kinda effects? the kinda beam that burns. initial energy hit followed by fire DoT. (instead of KB). the beam's burns probably would cause some sort of effect. I'm thinking more like an interrupt or hindrance, -atkspeed -dmg -def something like this or one of these. Beam could maybe have a special buff power which other than boosting damage and accuracy can give the ability to fire at targets through walls [X-ray beam] or something. the downsides? overheat. end consumption is going to be the weakpoint. that and maybe the intensity of the beams can natively build up as you fire them more often (giving each attack a small self damage buff followed by an -end debuff to self. Range, being beams this would likely have a long range. AoE, kinda hard to think of beams and AoE, but think more of a barrage of shots that fill a hallway and damage an enemy, pass through them and deal some damage to other enemies in their path. or also think of a massive hallway filling beam that hits everything in range in that direction unless the beam is stopped by obstacles and Xray beam is not on (toggle?). should also have a stun beam. cone minor damage energy + psionic. and who can forget Metroid and samus aran with her Ice beam? moderate energy damage + minor damage cold DoT, Hold could also give it a pet, "beam core sentry", this ball of light is indestructible and blasts beams at your enemies over the course of the time it is active (60 seconds). It also adds to your overheat self buff/debuff caused by using each power. So lets recap, energy with fire DoT, stacking enemy damage debuff and self stacking damage buff with increasing end consumption (self) over time tacked on. fast power recharge and activation with power chaining. 1 stun cone energy psionic. 1 timed indestructible pet with powers [single target beam shot], [circular beam shots AoE], 1 self buff (toggle) moderate +Accuracy +Tohit, +Special (fire even when the target is blocked as long as it's in range), slightly longer range than most blasting sets. 9 powers: Lv1 Beam Strike, Ranged (150ft), High Damage Energy, Moderate Fire DoT ( 5 ticks over 10 seconds), activation time: instant, animation duration: 1 second, recharge: 2 seconds. enemy -damage - attack speed, self +overheat( adds 10% damage to all powers, all your powers end cost is increased for the next 60 seconds, this buff and debuff stacks), a thin but highly packed swift beam sears into your target at lightspeed, the wound sears with the heat of the bolt slightly lowering their ability to move which effects their damage and attack speed. Lv1 Beam Barrage, Ranged Cone (150ft), Moderate Damage Energy [multi shot], minor fire DoT (5 ticks over 10 seconds), activation time: instant, animation/attack duration: 3 seconds, recharge 2 seconds , enemy -damage, -attack speed, self +overheat this 2 handed attack keeps the beams shooting at everything in the direction you are facing. Lv2 Stun beam, Ranged cone (125ft), minor damage energy/psionic, foe +stun (60 seconds) +sleep(30 seconds) magnitude 3 to 8, activation time: instant, animation duration: 1 second, recharge: 3 seconds. self +overheat Lv6 Halo, PBAoE, High Damage Energy, Moderate Fire DoT, (10 ticks over 20 seconds), activation time: instant, animation duration: 2 seconds, recharge: 4 seconds, enemy - damage, - attack speed, self +overheat. You focus a ring of light around you then release it in all directions attacking everything close by with searing power. Lv8 Xray beam, toggle, enhance for to-hit buff, end reduction, recharge time, sets; to-hit buff. +accuracy (25%), +to-hit (50%), +special (attack when target is blocked), activation time: 5 seconds (interruptible during casting, disables while held or stunned, not slept or immobilized), recharge time: 60 seconds. with this power on, you can see right through any obstacles and see right through your enemy to find the best way to hit them, it does not supply any extra damage, but while active you can use it's power to fire your beams through such objects, this lets you to both select blocked or unseen targets, and attack when a target would normally be blocked. Lv12 Beam Gatling, Narrow Cone Sniper (350 ft) ranged directional damage, multi shot. extreme damage energy, high fire DoT (5 ticks over 10 seconds), activation time: 3 seconds (interruptible), animation duration: 3 seconds, recharge: 3 seconds, enemy - damage, - defense, self +overheat. You charge up a series of powerful beams to launch from a long distance away and unleash a series of such blasts in a cone in the general direction of the target, the speed and closeness of each blast causes enemies to have less chance to dodge future attacks, while the searing pain of getting hit causes enemies to strike with less damage out of reflex. Lv18 Ice beam, ranged (125 ft), moderate damage energy, Cold DoT (10 ticks over 20 seconds) + hold (180 seconds, mag 18) (no overheat) Lv26 Beam Sentry, Summon pet. this ball of light blasts your enemies with deadly swift beam attacks for 60 seconds, it's indestructible, and has the following attacks [Beam Strike, recharge 4 seconds], [Beam Barrage recharge 4 seconds], [Halo, recharge 8 seconds] activation time: instant, animation duration: 2 seconds, recharge: 15 seconds, self +overheat Lv32 Beam Cannon Narrow Cone Sniper (400 ft), ranged directional damage, single shot, Superior Damage Energy, Extreme Fire DoT 10 ticks over 20 seconds. activation time: 3 seconds (interruptible), animation duration: 3 seconds, recharge: 45 seconds, enemy - damage, - regen, self +overheat. you charge up a beam sure to be overkill even from far away, you unleash it as one single massive blast in the direction of your target, any targets in that range are hit with a devastating beam which envelopes their whole body the searing pain makes them less able to deal damage back, while the extent of the burns greatly inhibit their regeneration. Not included, but for consideration: (possibly to replace Icebeam) Beam Shackles, Ranged AoE (101ft), Hold, no initial damage, moderate DoT Energy/fire. you wrap beam rings around your enemies holding their arms and legs, the ring burns them This is all just a rough draft. a basic outline of the idea.

yeah 1 to 10 was easy, the trouble started during 20 to 25, especially missions. I've noticed the contacts want to kill me, "you can find some of this enemy group in this high purple +4/+5 level of the area to you" I wanted to focus on the strengths of the ranged portion, I focused too much on my secondaries originally in 2006, I think at the end I only ended up having 2 ranged attacks + sentinel pet and a largely useless hold. that was silly. now I have 1 KB power I use when things get up close that need to be hit back because I'm held etc. sometimes I use it as part of the low end use "cheap" damage to kill something or at least make it easier to kill if I'm low on end. honestly I use it maybe 50% of the time, things (enemy AI) tend to default to run+range if they survive the initial assault on the group. I only need to have 1 KB attack, and honestly I don't plan to keep using it once the build is finished, it just comes with it. Thats why I took the PBAoE attack in the primary (eventually, after it was suggested) holds, there's tesla cage, which is single target and minor damage I really think that's not useful enough to keep in the build after years of using it. I mean if it was TAoE that would work, or if it was single target and at least moderate damage that'd work too.. but it's not. moving on the secondaries have a disorient tacked on to each except the first mandatory KB one. that would make me have to drop focus from ranged abilities to really take any, in exchange for single target melee attacks which allow enemies to get too close anyways. so I'm largely just using the buffs from the secondary and took the last on the list only because it's extreme damage and only took it at 50, honestly I was contemplating taking Cryo Freeze Ray instead to have some sort of cold damage and a hold. I may yet still do that. we'll see. whatever goes there will just have a single slot. I really decided to take total focus because I'm going for damage and freeze ray and tesla cage aren't it, the TAoE sleep grenade could maybe be useful too. I was going to take that to get another TAoE power but the minor damage again turned me off and I eventually took short circuit instead and much earlier.

yeah, I admit, when I went to make one, I thought, if I'm going to change from blaster to sentinel I might as well do it all right the way I intended at the start, now wheres the beam blasting? oh.. just a rifle. after that I admit I stopped looking and just went back to finishing my tank. then when it was finished decided to start my blaster, completely forgetting sentinel had other sets. so sorry for the confusion, I'll maybe give the electric sentinel a look. we'll see. I really would want beam blasting though.. I know I'm too picky. and because of that I will suffer as it were. don't mind trying to compensate for my personal tastes. Especially seeing as when I actually go through these things, I often don't remember all details about it unless I decide to use it or found some aspect of it interesting, and that can make help from kind people like you lot.. frustrating for you.. again sorry, and thanks for correcting me.

you, know, when I first saw the video of the servers back when it was just a rumor, I read sentinel was a ranged at with armor and I was kinda happy, I said "this is probably arcana's doing, she always talked about the fact no one ever made a ranged +armor AT right in any game." and also thought, "well that'll be great, I might remake my blaster as a sentinel". Then I went to make one and was like "ok, now how do I get rid of this rifle and fire from my hands.." ... "oh.. you're stuck with it... so all sentinels are tech/natural origin then.." I look forwards to the day sentinels can indeed fire from their hands and forgo the rifle. I mean it's a nice option. but some toons might feel more comfortable with out it graphically. In other-words I was weirded out by the graphical power firing method. to be honest, "Joshex" was never meant to be an electric blaster, energy blasting was closer, but he was written to be a "beam blaster", back in 2006 the graphical way that electric blasting fired just looked more similar to what you'd expect of an energy beam than actual energy blasting did. So that's what I went with. Not sure when or if the devs will get around to making alternate firing animations for sentinels which don't have a gun. The way things look means a lot to me. unless this were a text adventure game. if a sentinel could drop the gun and have firing animations like a blaster, yeah I'd hop over there in no time. edit: you know what, now that we the players have control of the game (and blasters also only have beam rifle not beam blasting) I think I'll make another thread to suggest that.

My fault, Mids must subtract your base 100% from the totals window total. Even so, that's nitpicking, I said I am at the cap and I meant it. but again I do know the basic game mechanics, I'm just not up on news. maybe it's a bug, but something tells me it may just be the missions I'm getting at that level has some default mob x# that bypasses the player diff settings. most likely x2. started experiencing it in talos island, before that is was 2 to 3 per group. nope, I'm taking on board what you're saying, but when I know something you are saying does not fit the bill, I say so. I am trying to figure out what is causing me to die on -1 x1 when I am doing everything as right as possible. not just the build, as I said it's not even fully implemented yet. I'm talking stopping before each group invis or stealth looking around corners and trying to snipe/nuke yellows first then AoE, then clean up then move on and wash rinse repeat. but for some reason there are too many yellows. and groups pop out of nowhere, most likely ambushes. I try to recover with insps and dodging around corners to recover a bit and fire back. most of the time with the groups with 1 yellow or no yellow I can take out 3 enemies before they get within attack range, or usually they only get to cast 1 attack which misses, at 4 enemies something gets up close and personal and I can struggle and try to distance myself again behind a corner apply any insps which could help. Thats fine, sometimes I'll go many missions being careful and no problems and will feel "ah I must have the hang of this now, slow and steady. but then.. 5 enemies a group groups slap next to eachother? I could try to snipe and elevator it, no wait ambush? what if I snipe a boss and he falls down (dead), then continues to run after me like nothing happened a few seconds later ona group that has no self or rez other? (seen that happen a few times with a named boss, sniped them before some sort of point the game was looking for and they popped back to life).. the game mechanics are destroying all solo strategies I have to perform. This means death is guaranteed at some points even if you play carefully. this should not be. Even blasters should be able to handle an ambush on -1 x1 with no sets just the best enhancements for the level(DO or SO). if they are careful there should be no possible way they can die at this lowest level. If there is such a way they can die under these circumstances, this should be looked into, as obviously there is some core problem with blasters versus the min difficulty. The fact this is not the case, means blasters or maybe just the sets I'm using are falling short of the minimum statistical floor level of the game. I'm here in this thread because I thought I found a fix and was shocked with it was just a cruel joke. regardless I've recovered from that and am now trying to figure out what statistically is wrong here. I've come to the conclusion that it's survivability related. blasters are below the floor of the minimum survivability. this may be because of the damage trade for end mod that the primary powerset employs. But somehow I think it's more related to def and res, cause if it were damage my double build-up should handle it, or maybe buildup isn't lasting long enough, maybe blaster's buildup needs to last longer. the problem is somewhere in here, I'd appreciate help figuring it out, rather than just assuming it's my problem. "I died maaaaaybe a handful of times" were you trying to be careful? you know, no rambo, waiting till enough is recharged to take the group and targetting carefully, appllying boosts/insps int he right order as needed? if so there should be no way you should die. if there is, that means the game is broken. "blasters, survivability 4", more like "survivability 0.1" this needs to be looked into.

I saw recently that somehow someone was able to use the CO method and put thier @ in front of the character name. it definitely exceeded the normal character limit for a name. is this some new feature in an attempt to tackle this problem?

I mean I've tested zap, it's better than I remember it being but. not with IO sets, and not with a finished build, but yeah at about l25 I noticed there's more enemies in each mob, an average of 4 to 5 on x1 where previously there were only 2 to 3 at lower levels. I'm also noticing an uptick in -to-hit which makes sniping problem targets from a distance on a per group basis imperative. so if for some reason I miss, thats time to scramble. also the uptick in HP for the enemies is noticeable. I'm noticing that even with a good focus on these details, before you get to sets you die, there will eventually be that one more enemy than you can handle just after you used up your buffs. Kinda getting annoying. Besides I'm off asking for changes to afterburner. instead I'm focusing on other problems which I was attempting to fix with afterburner. I understand what I am experiencing. on -1 x1 I should not be having these problems. and no, it's not my build, I'm not to set level yet, it seems to be just blasters natively don't have what it takes to handle some things solo at this level even taking it slow. that shows that there needs to be something to aide in this department around this level. afterburner would have been a quick fix, but yeah probably would have caused other already powerful toons to get even more over powered. um.. no. Mids is a good tool for planning. knowing how the numbers effect gameplay also helps. that combination of MIDS + trial and error can help make a good build as good as it can be. Knowing that when you see a number that doesn't add up to whats going to be necessary to keep the toon alive in the gameplay style it demands, then there is something wrong with something comprising the whole setup. Usually a lack of something. Sometimes it's things put in the wrong area like trying to max out on properties the at does not intend to provide While (very important) not putting enough effort into the strengths of the AT and it's PSets, but in this case that's not the case. I put in as much damage as possible, upto the 400% cap. As many ranged damage powers as possible, good tohit and accuracy boosts, good regen and recovery, and lastly as much def and res as I could fit in at the appropriate levels. but looking at it, on it's face, It's borderline. it could stand or fall. Even with good tactics. and that's all I really need to say. you're first intuition is to blame me for not knowing the game. or not knowing blasters or I must be missing something. nope. got all that covered.

see, now thats news to me. again we'll see what the build does in action when tested.

not really expecting anything, hence "or not". I wasn't banned from titan for trying to get the game changed. I was banned from there because I couldn't leave certain topics alone. and I wore agge's patience down. most of it was my conspiracy theories about why the game was taken down. And scientific and theologic conversations where they didn't belong. That and I may have given some unintentionally bad advice to some people. right now, I'm really just trying to make an old toon work. it's a challenge, none of the tricks given seem to really work. but I'll test my build made based on suggestions to the best extent I can, and if it works, ok, if not.. well, i would like the devs to revisit several blaster things, [defiance], the ancillaries, especially munitions armor, and electric blasting. again not holding out for immediate action. but these things could at least go under review. some primaries got reworks. electric blasting did not. again I'm trying to make an old toon work better. some of the IO sets help a bit. but overall.. well, I have yet to fully test the build as it is now modified in new mids. but it doesn't look much better, we'll see there are a few factors which might help but.. I guess it really comes down to the type of blaster primary and ancillary you pick. hence why the outcome of this whole convo ended with that being the most likely target for needed changes. yeah some of the ancillaries are great, others, not so much.. again electric blasting did not get a rework, from what others have said and from my best knowledge, it has never had a rework. it probably needs something added/changed to it just to bring it upto par with other Psets.

you must not have read my post clearly. you're still on the offensive, a bit blindly, [blind rage] probably should have been an insp name, or maybe a temp power "this power allows you to break the damage cap boosting you damage as it does so, but you might also attack friendly targets by accident (50% chance cancel on miss)." My words were that the game was made for tanks. As the difficulty was raised to challenge even tanks with their lesser damage but higher armor.. of course scrappers can be great, some can tank most content. some even farm selectively. The game diff raise may have been for them as well. blasters; as more powersets were created the devs included more powers in mobs. Simply because they were available and thematic for that mob or enemy type. many of these powers raised def, res or applied stuns, sleep, - to hit, and mez and holds and immobilize et cetera to all groups low level to high (and it would seem enemy sapping ability was buffed recently, mostly with carnies and malta). At one point the actual statistical basis for these mobs was raised because some players on certain ATs that weren't squishy said it was too easy, and the devs wanted to make sure they didn't bore and lose these players. Then incarnate powers were introduced and yet again there was a statistical raise and more powers in mobs hands. Over the years it has indeed become tougher for blasters, Many blaster PowerSets never got any relooks by the devs and have been unchanged and untouched since that beginning. ergo blasters other than once they get to incarnate, did not get much more power except from some new powersets and new IO sets. So the game is harder for them now. Their survivability -incarnate is much lower. Many years before shutdown, there was a point when around 30% def was really "enough" to tank for most content. now, however it's more like 50% to 70%. As blasters level, at around Lv20-25 they start to see these mob power types, debuffs on steroids et cetera, yet get no more substantial survival powers to make up for it. Most sets aren't even worth slotting till 25 and 30 as the enhancement value is just so far below SO, yeah there's bonuses that would technically be worth it, but builds are expensive. you'd have to make a low level set build then a high level one just to make it through if you went solo. otherwise, yes it's a slow grind. next, I got support for modifying blaster ancillaries, not the pool ideas in this thread. lastly, I was going to type this yesterday but I clicked "load new posts" popup and it switched pages and I lost the post; yes, I'm making progress, at least for total build and L35+ content, fixing some ancillaries would probably be better than messing with pools. it's the L20 to 34 content before you have a finished build that also needs a relook. blasters might need to have some sort of extra survival power available here. it's just how to make that work over all becomes an issue. maybe a second inherent power for all ATs, each AT being given a different inherent to give a little boost in their weakest area(s), or maybe it's just blasters who need a better inherent power to start with I mean yeah defiance has it's merit, but it probably should have more than just "attack while sleeping held immobilized and stunned". but thats probably a topic for another thread, maybe blasters should not only attack while under conditions but return a portion of any debuffs/erffects to any enemy targets (large portion) and generally PBAoE these debuffs/effects while active (minor)). so if mobs hold a blaster they are likely get get held themselves (with the strongest effect on the blasters target and minor effects on any melee range targets. sapping a blaster, matla yes I'm talking to you, will probably result in a massive end drain to all malta in range. blizzard with it's -to-hit would similarly cause all targets to have less chance to hit the blaster/their team, +slower rech. either way I cede on changing afterburner. we'll leave that to the devs to "decide, or not".

lets just say, I played a blaster for the majority of the time from 2006 to 2012. tried other ATs briefly for a few months here and there, finally realized tanks were really what the game was designed for. yeah you can mitigate deaths being prepared and having a place to dive into, and targetting the right enemy first, but, that doesn't always apply, eventually you'll run into a hidden enemy you can't target around a corner. if you get too close even with invis by the time you buff and target you'll have to focus on them. but what if, suddenly an ambush, or another hidden group behind a box? ded blaster. It's not how well you play, I mean you could spend the time ghosting each area of the map and slow down your progress just to see where everything is and then still miss some group that will agro on you unexpectedly, yeah usually with a few quick insps you might be able to pull through, but that's not always the case, such as in sudden surprise EB right after your build-ups just went on recharge because you just nuked a yellow group. It's not that I don't know how to play a blaster. I know that really well. it's that, after playing them for so long, they just.. get old. fast. they just aren't viable full time ATs they need a lot of work in play style, especially for sets which have lesser damage such as elec and ice blasting. it's also not that I don't know how to build a blaster, it's again just that even with a good build you really get pushed to a team, soloing becomes a trial. regardless, CoH has it's flaws, maybe that's why in your opinion the game isn't built for this kinda "abuse" where afterburner or even invis could still grant def in combat. I took this topic to the discord chat and we all agreed, and I hope you will too, that it's probably not best to modify these pool powers at all. it's the blaster ancillaries that need reworks. especially munitions armor. We agreed such powers probably should give better benefits especially in the def department and should probably be toggles not click type or auto. While I still think afterburner is a cruel joke. I'll leave it at that.

well, they had a reason. and the def doesn't disappear. i could see them do the same thing with afterburner, half the def in combat.

wrong answer. I've got pre-shut down mids. it doesn't state that in the description and I know people who used it preshut down. in combat or while interacting with an object it reduces your +stealth substantially. that was the only caveat, that after one group if there was an ambush they'd definitely see you.

you lose, you've shown obvious lack of knowledge about the game if you think Invisibility makes you "only effecting self". hint I can still fight with it on and it doesn't decrease movement speed like stealth does.. it's all around better. it's the proof that this is the kinda thing the original devs would consider. it's the proof that they weren't worried about blasters becoming less squishy. it negates every argument on that topic. Oh, and I know how to IO, you assume I don't but my tank can pawn everything, it's got excessive damage, incredible surviveability and self rez. all without touching the click type boost. thats only for big bosses. you and others flaming this thread are assuming 2 things; 1: that I don't know what I'm doing, that I don't know how to IO, and that I'm an idiot who has no clue that mids exists and am just winging it. the core argument being, if I was serious about making a good blaster, someone could help me because I'm obviously a moron. ~ which I'm not. 2: you then insinuate that.. actually there is no good way to make a blaster, they are intentionally death bait by the devs and no one will want to change this.. so, then by that logic how is it that anyone can make a better blaster than my build? using the same powersets and a focus on damage and def. the answer is you're saying, "stop trying, just be squishy and shut up" no. blasters are /too/ squishy. the devs need to take a look at ways to make them tougher, Arcana last I talked with her held this opinion too. (she?) said that given the power she would change defiance to something else entirely. said it was a stupid idea to merely allow attacking while under status effects, and that blasters should get more surviveability. I'm saying, with enough possible +def pool powers in pools blasters are inclined to take, this is not an issue. so long as they don't raise the game's floor mob diff again. also may I negate your argument where you say no one relies on afterburner? because I was only summarizing people's opinions for why they use it in this thread. they use it for those 2 reasons, flight protection between missions and Oh crap moments. thats the summary of peoples opinions of people who actually use it.