Solarverse

I left the game around that time for this very reason. Nerfs were flying fast and furious in the interests of PvP balance, which I cared nothing for, and they were ruining the PvE experience, which I loved. Sets and incarnate powers have enabled some of my favorite builds to feel strong again, so I've returned, but yeah, those nerfs were terrible and the motivation for them a bad one. What should have been done was a PvP-only nerf, but that apparently required too many resources for the CoH dev team to pull off. What kills me is that Jack Dummert told us that this game would never have PvP. Then after they lied about that, they told us powers would not be nerfed in the name of PvP. Then, they turned around and claimed that all these nerfs were nerfed due to PvE, when everyone knew it was a lie, they did indeed nerf it for PvP. I know, because I was a huge PvPer, and people complained like insanity over everything that eventually got nerfed. So many nerfs happened because of PvP it turned a lot of us off from this game. Even the travel power suppression nerf happened because of PvP. They enacted that RIGHT after the Arena went live. Really glad it's gone now. But yes, I want the old animation back for Energy Transfer, among others that were changed.

I agree with this completely. I can't hardly play Energy as a Tank since then. I try, and then I even actually SKIP Energy Transfer because of the pooping squat animation. I hate that I skip it, but I hate it that much. I hated that nerf, it almost made me quit the game. Nerf it, sure, but change the animation? Why??? That was the only fix? Really? Yeah, man...I'm right there with ya.

What you describe is simply a trolly/inexperienced/young player IMO. This idea that almost all KBs are somehow out to ruin the fun is just silly from my PoV. Dark mitigates with -toHit, KB does it in a different way. KB is super fun as a mitigation tool, while watching awesome ragdoll and creating just the sort of chaos some players don't like. I have sparred for about 18 years now with players over KB, no biggie. IME, people that don't like KB are not fun to play games with, because I like to play, not plod along doing the Tank-herd-wait-here-rinse-repeat. As soon as I see 'but the Tank has to herd' then I know we won't play well together anyway, it's just boring, IMO. I was on a team where the Tank was doing this for some of the larger rooms and I left at the first chance. Was not using a KB character. I get that some portion of the population likes this 'dungeon crawl' experience. Different players desire very different playstyles and I love that CoH can provide both. Dark/Dark blasters fill another of the playstyle niches and like all combos, _something_ could be tweaked, but IME they are fun/fine as-is. I won't derail any further. Hey, I won't take that from you, man. By all means, ay as you wish. Trust me, if I am on a team with no trollers (because KB makes their role difficult if you attack before them) or a Tank (for obvious reasons) then I am down with the KB. But when on a team with similar play style goals, I use KB to help their play style, not ruin it. It comes down to this, are you playing with the team, or against them? In your case, when you see their ay style does not match yours, you leave. And I personally thank you for that. It saves you from being forced to play in a way you don't like, and it saves them from being annoyed by your playstyle that goes against the grain of what they are doing. So hats off to you, Sir.

Pretty sure that would be a power balancing nightmare. Champions Online does it, though that's as a real-money thing (which they occasionally give away), so it's doable. CO was designed around it. This game was not. I am honestly glad it wasn't.

Tanks usually gather mobs into a corner...angle your KB to where the mobs slam in to the corner the tank is in, and you are praised as a good KB player. If no corners are available, wait for the co stroller to lock down the mob before you unleash your fury. If no troller and no corner, hover above the mob and aim straight downward. You can also use your KB to make the flock go in the direction of the Tank if you get some that stray.

I don't know, I've really enjoyed reading everyone's thoughts...In fact, if it's been a debate it's been at least 99% one-sided... Hahaha, this comment here needs to be framed and put in the Hall of Fame! Clue me in on the joke? I wasn't trying to be funny...I'm not offended, just really not sure what I said that was amusing Just the fact that it is 99% positive just shows the passion we have for the game. And you bringing it to light the way you did made it epic. So roll with it!

I don't know, I've really enjoyed reading everyone's thoughts...In fact, if it's been a debate it's been at least 99% one-sided... Hahaha, this comment here needs to be framed and put in the Hall of Fame!

The cow jokes are awesome! No, seriously though, this is a damn good SG. I myself run at least 1 TF a day, and eventually will even attempt to throw a bit of PvP in here and there. Great SG, would love to see it grow with like minded people.

I'm putting together a comic book publication. My avatar is actually a snip from the cover of my first print issue due to be released hopefully this year. So I would say that I am on the right server! See you folks around!

Why are we still debating this? There is no debate. CoH wins hands down. If this guy hasn't figured out why this game is superior by now, he can go back to whatever game he came from.

That is a terrible idea IMO. Why hate on KB? KB is AWESOME. Because most players use KB to scatter mobs and go, "Lookie at what I did!" instead of using their KB to synergize with the team. There are fewer good players who use KB correctly than these forums make it out to be. I agree...there should be a way to turn KB on or off and make it a KD on all KB/KD powers. This way it becomes a choice, rather than a function you cannot control. KB on your account, because you are the one playing that account, may be fantastic, assuming you know how to utilize it to your team's advantage. However, for all those other bad players, who outnumber perceptively the good one, who just love watching mobs fly, despite a Tanks best efforts to round them up, KB is a HORRIBLE thing.

The all mighty Blapper! Haha :D

Since some can't seem to understand a simple question without trying to make things complicated, let me answer for you. Any Tank, although I would prefer an Ice/Stone Tank. Any AoE heavy Blaster. A /Kin Controller A /Dark Corruptor. You will never need anything else.

They are far from Tanks. The only class I can compare them to, is the garbage class. They are the most pointless class in this game IMO. They are good for themes, that's about it. I think that class would shine if it was a team of Sentinels though. They would probably do well as an all Sent team. Other than that, I simply cant find a use for one.

Clearly you have not read my thread. According to every single player who has posted on it, Dark/Dark Blasters are simply not played correctly, and aside from a couple of minor changes that I feel are needed, I agree with them.

Just wanted to highlight and strongly agree with this comment, in the context of the thread and in general. (I think Brutes or MMs are most-played right now.) I can most certainly agree with this statement.

After the many discussions I have had in this thread, and honestly taking them in to consideration, there is only two things I would do to the set; A) I would decrease the amount of time it takes for TT's dots to tic by 3 tics per second rather than 1 tic per second. B) I would add Engulfing Darkness to the Secondary. If those two things happened, I honestly think Dark/Dark would become my favorite powerset for Blasters.

I've always wanted this as well.

Like I said, I'm going to agree to disagree. We can debate this all month long. Honestly, since I am NOT asking for changes here, it's not worth it to me to continue this conversation. Had I been interested in a change, I would debate this further, but since I am not, well...it's simply too much going back and forth.

You keep making the exact same mistake. You keep assuming every Dark Blast power is a damage over time. They aren't. There is one damage over time attack in Dark Blast. And it is a cone attack, not a single target one. So let's take your (flawed) analogy. I'll explain why it's flawed in a moment. You have a group of 6 enemies with 175 health each at level 50. You probably wont find this, but let's go with it since that's your example. Let's say for some reason you haven't enhanced your attacks beyond accuracy. I will be listing first AoE attacks in descending strength, then cone attacks in decending strength, then single target attacks in descending strength. For Ice Blast Blizzard: Target Type: location based aoe Damage: 76 ticks of 2.78 lethal damage over 15 seconds, 76 ticks of 2.78 cold damage over 15 seconds, total damage of 422.56 damage over 15 seconds Average Damage Per Cast Cycle: 2.42 Cast Time: 2.03 seconds Recharge Time: 2 minutes 50 seconds Ice Storm: Target Type: location based aoe Damage: 76 ticks of 0.78 lethal damage over 15 seconds, 76 ticks of 0.78 cold damage over 15 seconds, total of 118.56 damage over 15 seconds Average Damage Per Cast Cycle: 1.88 Cast Time: 2.03 second Recharge Time: 1 minute Frost Breath: Target Type: 40 foot long 30 degree wide cone Damage: 2 ticks of 43.79 cold damage over 0.6 seconds, total damage of 87.58 damage over 0.6 seconds Average Damage Per Cast Cycle: 4.69 Cast Time: 2.67 seconds Recharge Time: 16.seconds Bitter Freeze Ray: Target Type: single target Damage: 172.67 cold damage Average Damage Per Cast Cycle: 9.87 Cast Time: 2.5 seconds Recharge Time 15 second Freeze Ray: Target Type: single target Damage: 11 ticks of 12.51 cold damage over 2 seconds, total of 137.61 damage over 2 seconds mag 3 hold for 9.54 seconds Average Damage Per Cast Cycle: 12.51 Cast Time: 1 second Recharge Time: 10 seconds Ice Blast: Target Type: single target Damage: 40.04 smashing damage, 62.56 cold damage, total of 102.6 damage Average Damage Per Cast Cycle: 10.61 Cast Time: 1.67 seconds Recharge Time: 8 seconds Ice Bolt: Target Type: single target Damage: 12.51 smashing damage, 50.05 cold damage, total of 62.56 damage Average Damage Per Cast Cycle: 12.51 Cast Time: 1 seconds Recharge Time: 4 seconds Compare this to Dark blast. Again I'll list things in AoE (strongest to weakest), then cone (strongest to weakest), then single target (strongest to weakest). Blackstar Target Type: PBAoE Damage: 62.56 smashing damage, 187.68 negative energy damage, total of 250.24 damage Average Damage Per Cast Cycle: 1.69 Cast Time: 3 seconds Recharge Time: 2 minutes 25 seconds Umbral Torrent Target Type: 80 ft long 30 degree wide cone Damage: 60.06 negative energy Average Damage Per Cast Cycle: 3.75 Cast Time: 1.03 seconds Recharge Time: 15 seconds Tenebrous Tentacles Target Type: 40 foot long 40 degree wide cone Damage: 8.45 negative energy damage, 8 ticks of 6.26 negative energy damage over 7.1 seconds after a 1 second delay, total of 58.53 damage Average Damage Per Cast Cycle: 5.01 Cast Time: 1.67 seconds Recharge Time: 10 seconds Gloom Target Type: single target Damage: 8 ticks of 13.76 negative energy damage over 3.6 seconds, total damage of 110.08 Average Damage Per Cast Cycle: 11.39 Cast Time: 1.67 seconds Recharge Time: 8 seconds Life Drain Target Type: single target Damage: 102.6 negative energy damage, +120.48 self heal Average Damage Per Cast Cycle: 10.33 Cast Time: 1.93 seconds Recharge Time: 8 seconds Abyssal Gaze Target Type: single target Damage: 3 ticks of 29.53 negative energy damage over 2.1 seconds, total of 88.59 damage, mag 3 hold for 9.54 seconds Average Damage Per Cast Cycle: 4.09 Cast Time: 1.67 seconds Recharge Time: 20 seconds Dark Blast Target Type: single target Damage: 62.56 negative energy damage Average Damage Per Cast Cycle: 12.51 Cast Time: 1 seconds Recharge Time: 4 seconds You'll notice I didn't list any snipe attacks. There's a couple reasons for that. First of all, Ice Blast doesn't have a snipe. And second of all, you can't get any of the stats for Dark Blast's snipe in the character creation menu. But when you actually compare the numbers, you notice something rather interesting things. For one, while Ice Blast has higher damage many of those are DoT attacks. With the more damaging ones being location based DoT which the enemy will flee before they take the full damage unless you can prevent it. You should also take note that with the hypothetical group of enemies that all have 175 health, most finishing attacks are wasting damage regardless of if it was Dark or Ice Blast being used. And when you factor in cast times, yes TT is going to get it's full damage of on most of the enemy group, unless you follow it up with Blackstar. But why wouldn't you be leading off with Blackstar instead, and just wiping out the entire group all at once? Something which Ice Blast's tier 9 nuke can't always claim to do since enemies tend to flee the area as soon as it's cast. You also notice that the Damage Per Activation Cycle for both sets is roughly the same across the board. Imagine that, they both do the same overall damage due to Ice Blast having generally longer recharge times and activation times. Can we please put this "dark blast sacrifices damage for control" myth to bed now? It's not a myth though, depending on how you apply what you wrote and the environment you apply it under. Let me say for starters, yes...you are correct. However... What you typed up sounds terrific on paper, under strict scenarios and controlled circumstances. However, in actual game play, how often does your TT finish its dots before the mobs die? I would say that it depends on what you have on your team and what you are up against. You need to realize that things are not always white and black. This is where it boils down to personal preference I suppose, and my preference differs from yours. The problem with TT is that it is a huge grey area. It widely depends on so many variable in order for the math that you apply to actually stand. The ONLY way TT is getting off its tics of damage before the mob dies, is if you solo, or if you fight a high resistant mob, like Crey for an example. Otherwise, mobs are going to melt under the blasting power of more front loaded DPS like Fire Blasters, and single targets are going to drop fast under the fury of Ice Blasters. Yes, Ice Blasters has DoTs as well, however, those DoTs tick very fast whereas TT tics one dot per actual second. I understand you say that Ice Storm makes the mobs scatter, however, I don't have that issue, mobs seem more interested in the Tank than running off. Sure, a couple might run, but then they run right back in. However, back to what I was saying, if you are on a team of competent players, TT will rarely finish the damage that it is capable of. This is where I feel like your argument doesn't apply. Your argument applies under strict and controlled environments. Not in actual game play where variables change from team to team, and mob to mob...at least not in my personal experience. What I am writing is no myth...the very slow ticking dots on TT hurts the set as a Blaster set. Which is why as soon as I can I am respecing out of it. What you are saying is true, yes...I cannot deny this....however, you are not taking in to consideration the very important variables. At this point though, I will agree to disagree. It's honestly more about what you consider important about the set and what you like about the set. The set for me has two powers that I don't like. Lucky for me I do not have to take them. I can pick up other powers in the Epics or Ancillary to help fill what I feel like are holes in the set. Anyway, hope this helps you understand where I am coming from here....even if you feel like my thoughts on this are flawed. ;)

They trade damage per second in a game where high damage per second counts most. I'll leave it at that though. This is an argument that I do not think can be won when people like it just as is. Not everyone is going to like a powerset for the same reasons. I see potential in the set, and I se some work arounds, so it is not important to me to try and get the set changed. I understand why you guys like it, just as I am sure you understand why I don't like a couple of the powers. Nobody could change my mind about Practiced Brawler being left as is. Nobody could convince me to change it. Just as I know that no matter what I said, I could never get you to change your mind. ;) Like I said, a ton of people I talk to in game, random people every day, feel as though Dark Primary and Secondary for a Blaster is a joke. Not surprisingly, the people on the forums feel differently. I am in the middle on this, I love the set, but only see two abilities wrong with the set. So I see both sides. Except it doesn't trade DPS. The DPS for TT is on par with any other Blaster cone attack. What it trades is burst damage, which is not quite the same thing. And this trade is only made with one single attack. Lead off with TT, and you'll get the full damage on most of the enemies hit with it. Follow up with another cone attack (since enemies are still nicely grouped for it), and that too gets full damage on everything. And TT has likely now managed to deal most to all of it's damage to your primary target. Start using your single target attacks next. You might get less then full TT damage on one of the enemies caught in it, but then again with any other blaster set the 2nd or 3rd attack was probably overkill which 'wasted' damage as well. Or in other words you didn't trade any damage, but got a cone immobilize. The only thing you didn't get was a Single Big Number showing above everything's head when TT hit. Thus it likely feels like it does little damage. Then again the various 'rain' powers also show multiple ticks of low damage yet nobody complains about them trading damage for a secondary effect. In fact, it's entirely possible for an enemy to exit most Rain type attacks before they took the full damage from it. They can't do that with TT. Okay, let me be more clear on how I mean this. If I hit you with an Ice attack, it does an instant 100 points of damage. If I can pull off three attack of 100, 50 and 25 in less than 2 seconds, and my target has 175 health, my target dies in less than 3 seconds. If I am using dark, and it does 100 damage, 50 and 25, but only tics 10 damage per second...my target will take much longer to die than if I had used Ice. So, damage per second...in a more literal sense. P.S. I couldn't read all of your message, in a TF at the moment, will finish reading it shortly, promise. Edit: I hear what you are saying, however, the Dot for TT tics way too slow. It's not a big deal though, I found a way around all of that, I just have to use Ghost Widow's powerset to do it. In the end, all will be well.

As I'd already pointed out, dark blasters don't trade damage for controls to begin with. They might trade burst damage for a cone immobilize, But TT does damage on par with other Blaster cone attacks. It's not the highest damage blaster cone, but it's middle of the pack in terms of strength. And it does twice as much damage as the Defender version of TT. Corrupters do more damage at base, but with a blaster's inherent they'll get more damage overall out of it. In fact, none of Dark Blast (blaster version) sacrifices damage for utility. It gets both damage and utility. But even if that wasn't the case, blasters have long traded damage for utility. That's the whole point of one secondary after all. They trade damage per second in a game where high damage per second counts most. I'll leave it at that though. This is an argument that I do not think can be won when people like it just as is. Not everyone is going to like a powerset for the same reasons. I see potential in the set, and I se some work arounds, so it is not important to me to try and get the set changed. I understand why you guys like it, just as I am sure you understand why I don't like a couple of the powers. Nobody could change my mind about Practiced Brawler being left as is. Nobody could convince me to change it. Just as I know that no matter what I said, I could never get you to change your mind. ;) Like I said, a ton of people I talk to in game, random people every day, feel as though Dark Primary and Secondary for a Blaster is a joke. Not surprisingly, the people on the forums feel differently. I am in the middle on this, I love the set, but only see two abilities wrong with the set. So I see both sides.

I'm all about what is fair. How old are you? I wasn't going to answer this, because I just know deep down you are trying to provoke some type of response. However, I am curious where you are going with this. If you have read the posts that lead up to this point, you will see that I have already given my age. I'm 43 years old. Why do you ask?

And in case you guys missed it, this settles it. Any conversation on the subject from here on out is simply blowing hot air.

I laugh at people who do that...it tells me they were so desperate for a name, they were willing to make the name look as goofy as anyone could possibly make it look in order to achieve getting that name. It shows lack of imagination...and quite frankly, lack of intelligence.