Zeraphia

Overall I enjoy the changes, but I have to say, I do feel as if some blast sets were in relatively worse spots than the ones chosen. I really think some of these 2 second not-snipe-but-heavy-hitter powers should get a glance at. Specifically thinking of Energy Blast and Radiation Blast in particular. AR definitely needed it though and I'm glad that it's in a better place.

I'm going to give a review of the set and a comparison to other blast sets pretty soon before taking someone else's opinions and "running" with it. My initial impression towards this set is that it is niche, but good at what it's trying to be good at.

I hate to be that person, and while I want to say I do not oppose the idea, my two cents opinion is that some sets are called "Battle Axe" or "Broadsword" because you're using Axes and Broadswords. You're not supposed to just use swords for BAs. It doesn't make sense, just play the other set at that point. Given however this set is named "Dual Blades" the idea of a "blade" is ubiquitous and encompassing. There are lots of themes and directions one could take while categorizing a weapon as a "blade" of some fashion. Therefore, I'm open to this idea. +1

This is a suggestion for another topic. However, the developers in HC have already modified Sonic Blast values iirc, and as such the set is appropriately "balanced" as seen fit. Personally, I was not happy with the change. But not in the direction you liked, I was unhappy because the only reason (for me) to choose Sonic Blast was because of its -res effects. I didn't like the reduction in -res values. I personally would not be in favor of another nerf to the -res portion, as there exists several other powersets that deliver more damage as alternatives.

Not that I find the original CoX writing bad, but generally when I create heroes for myself, I prefer ones with an original identity, and I don't seek to replicate other people's works. Sometimes I draw inspiration from artworks (as many do) but I usually give it a unique and very differentiating twist along with its own unique identity. However, I did when I was younger enjoy creating some characters with themes that were closely related to CoX characters. One however, was the Praetorian variation, Shalice Tilman. I got lucky with the name, and actually was able to get Shalice Tilman as a name on HC before it was "dinged" and I was forced to change it. The idea behind it was basically my imagination of what Shalice would look like and be like without merging with Aurora Borealis. Shalice was rather easy, she had no use for FF in Praetoria, as evidenced by the Aurora Borealis version, so Mind/Psionic Dominator made sense. I gave her black and purple hair, along with a medium purple outfit. Lord Recluse I imagine is one of the hardest ones to actually make a character for. The closest fitting one would probably actually be a Crab Soldier, but I think they're still very far off from being close enough to relate to him in a sincere way.

Yes, but I rarely ever encounter anybody running a Nature. I've seen plenty of Kinetics and Cold, some Therms, but rarely ever Nature. It's very underrated IMO even without taking into account 4* content. The set was amazing even before then and was definitely a staple for me to keep my Nature/Sonic Defender.

Nature. Does. Not. Get. Anywhere. Near. The. Credit. It. Deserves. Absolutely insane utility. Absurd AoE damage boosts, more healing than empathy, much better buffs, and those buffs are exotic and hard to find in many support sets. Fantastic AoE hold aura. It is practically the most useful defense set for 4* content, amazing on iTrials, and great for pugging with friends. Some may argue it's a little more mainstream than other options, but relative to how often I don't see them, I would say that set is massively underrated.

Oh hun, it was a joke haha

Rudra I think you might just need a really unoptimized, very defenseless Fire/Fire Blaster build!

You're intentionally putting yourself at a disadvantage, and requesting a change few people if any would want and benefit from. I just cannot see this realistically existing.

I just don't feel strongly enough for this suggestion to really push for adding it.

I don't mean to be rude here, this is a sincere question, why not add more open source projects or resources? I know it's not quite as cool as "hiding the objects behind the curtain and letting the public see the changes after" that's the current method of production, but since the team is so small, why not invite the extra help in development?

I've been defending AE and emphasized my concern over the state its been in and how many nerfs it received in a series (justified or not.) I'm sorry, LFG does not need to serve AE. It never has, and never should. AE is its own form of advertisement, and was never intended to replace traditional content in its entirety and I'm sure if you asked any of the original CoH developers, they'd never tell you they wanted 40%+ of the LFG chat to be "LF AE farm" all day long. The point is to actually have a way of finding teams, especially when you're recently logged in and maybe didn't see the message about a task force you wanted to join being 7/8 sports filled, 20 seconds before you load the game. That happens all the time. Sure, you could get an AE-only tab people could use, but it should be entirely segregated from traditional content such as iTrials/TFs.

Unfortunately, while I love to keep things short, I have to get the point across on why some "solutions" aren't really solutions at all, and what would define being a plausible solution. It was really long and I apologize, I just wanted to actually get something out there for people who wanted a set that was actually worth slotting and not just "another crappy alternative." Sad but I don't think anybody really likes any of my ideas. It's okay though. I did try. I do agree though that the KB set doesn't make tons of sense as it is though and could definitely use some auditing.

I apologize for getting back a little bit late here, but yes, it was meant that way haha, thank you! Good catch! I cannot speak for the experiences of others. In my view, out of the thousands of hours I've played CoH (granted, I only played a few characters with substantial knockback components) I never once came across a situation where a person with KB was actually told that they would need to slot in KB->KD enhancements in their build while in a mission or before beginning a mission or else they would get the boot. I cannot imagine it's a frequent occurrence, but maybe someone who plays something noticeably more knockback-y in a much more chaotic fashion sees different results. The only times I've seen people get genuinely kicked from a TF over it happened when someone went out of their way to be extraordinarily troll-y with it even after being warned several times it was a problem and several team members complaining about it in team chat. I don't think the "assholes taking over" thing is as big of a problem as some on the forums would make it out to be. I could however of course be very wrong. I see a couple of different ways to combat the issue, some are more "tame" in approach than others, but they're going to be markedly "strong" in the sense that they are not going to compromise the reason to even make a change in the first place. What I mean by that is, the problem regarding EB is typically its effectiveness is boggled down in a substantial way by its effects acting counter-productively when attempting to use melee or aoe-centric powers. @Galaxy Brain pointed out a good point in a post where he says "tbf, this is a content problem more than a player/power problem. The way the game is structured favors AoE over anything else," where inherently so much of the content is designed around quickly aoe-ing down mobs of enemies, KB poses a significant hinderance to its users and teammates potentially making tasks longer to complete. As to how much longer it takes to complete, this tends to vary in experience, enemy group, level differences between player and enemy, etc. where some will just get instantly one-shot by Nova, and others will be far more resilient where the KB starts to create significant issues. My goal then with those issues would be to address them in a way that allows EB to retain its KB-centric identity whilst providing an alternative to players who vastly prefer to transform the set into a KD-centric one because of these issues. Giving people who desire to retain KB the powerset they wanted, while granting people who are disgruntled with KB an alternative. I would try to ensure that the alternative meets the following conditions: Provides a KB->KD globalization in some fashion without having to use sudden acceleration or an IO into nearly every power of a set with copious amounts of KB. Does not decrease set diversity and aims to only increase the diversities and build complexities. Allows users who prefer KB to know that when making an "Energy Blast" character, that they are getting the advertised KB that they chose on the screen. It IS the default, and to get KD, you must do some personal leg-work to achieve those effects. Therefore, people who currently have EB on their characters who do not want KD at all on their powers, they have free reign to just not seek out these changes. If possible, an IO that even once you've decided "hey, I'd really prefer to have the majority of my powers KD, but maybe I just want this specific power to KB." To have the ability to slot a new enhancement that turns KD->KB. Basically, a reverse Sudden Acceleration that does KD->KB. This also further opens up build diversities. With those goals in mind, my ideas would be something akin to the following options: A free no cost toggle, that allows you to set all of your KB powers to a KD value. When turned off, all of your powers KB again. Default when not turned on will always be that the set KB's, and further if you wish to not have this toggle shown on your screen, you can just not put it in your power tray. Or if the need be, Null the Gull just removes the power from your power selections and would act like it never existed until you talked to Null to re-enable it. A 6-slot IO set that at the 6th bonus, reduces all KB effects to a KD value. Default is always KB, but if you go out of your way to get this set and 6-slot it, it's pretty clear you want KD, and are not seeking to KB at all. Keeps both camps happy. I could see that possibly that maybe you need to slot this set twice before it KB->KD's and the initial 6th slot bonus just does nothing until you slot the second 6th slot bonus. Take the IO idea further (not sure if it's possible to code it like this) and make a global KB->KD IO that when slotted 2-3 times in unique KB powers, you have all of your KB powers set to a KD value. Adds build diversity and interesting power selection choices, while making EB+melee-centric manipulations more viable. All of these would be strong solutions that are better than having to slot every single KB power with a KD enhancement to get it to be all KD for all of the users who just wish they could do so. I personally favor the first option, but would be fine with any of the other options. I'm also open to creative new ideas, but they have to actually address the problems without being just crappy "what's the point?" alternatives. Further, when implementing these features, I believe it would be a welcomed message from the HC to remind others to be kind to one another. Being rude to another person because they're using a power effect you don't like is just not okay. Reminding people that these alternatives are there to exist as that, alternatives. And they are not to be intended as "if someone does not use them, they are breaking the rules or griefing."

I guess that's your interpretation of the crowd's attitude towards a subject. Personally, my thoughts were in the category of these statements: "Yes, KB honestly to me does suck, especially when used improperly, and too many cases are far too easy to go from 'good use' to 'really bad use.'" "Do I support removing KB entirely as a feature entirely and replacing it with KD? No I don't at all." "Would I like an option that's more encompassing than having to destroy all of my builds with EB to make them perform at adequate levels relative to literally anything else? YES." I'm not looking to make some "ultra god mode" build, I'm just trying to actually have a non-gimmicky secondary for a very interesting looking powerset that could function adequately. I'm not looking to destroy KB from the game. I'm not looking for excuses to clock teammates on TFs for not using it. I'm not looking for something personally to antagonize other people or take away their playstyles. I'm looking for something that generally pleases the enormous crowd that would prefer literally other than KB (self-included) for their own enjoyments without having to completely eviscerate the potential of a set. Something that doesn't make knockdown the default, you have to actively select that you want that, and keeps KB as the default, meaning if you login to any KB character you made, it still KB's without needing to change any setting, just if you want different you have an option to seek it.

You cannot rob something of individuality if the option that "keeps its identity" would theoretically be accessible at any given moment the user wishes to go back to the original design. This is the same argument people will use against graphically updating a game in an older section versus leaving it how it is. The developers give a compromise solution where there's an option for the older mode and the updated one. Both were happy. You don't have to always force everyone to play your preferred original way and deal with dramatically decreased performance as a result.

Then you proceed to ask them why they are They tell you some reason about it being "too overpowered," Then you point out that it's so viscerally not because there's a completely identical set with KD attached to it... Then it proceeds to "well yeah you're right and you completely disproved all my arguments that it's overpowered, so just make that set instead." Instead of just admitting that an optional choice that doesn't actually rob anyone of anything and won't powercreep anything, we just get well... this.

Heh I feel like this was a parody of my suggestion, but I love it!

Lol. I'll address them for you: What you showcased is an example of taking Apocalypse which is a 10% recharge set, and keeping only 2 of its enhancements as a set, and then taking a best-case scenario which forces an awkward build path where you don't receive actually optimal results for your character and would likely make things like perma-hasten more difficult to achieve, or even if you did achieve it, you likely lost efficiency elsewhere in your build in terms of defense or overall damage output via procs in other areas. I honestly have not seen even a single build that actually uses a slotting mechanism remotely similar to this except for one build I made with Thugs/Storm and that was a special case where I just literally did not have actual ranged blast powers I was going to use in an attack chain and needed to split the bonuses to achieve something for a specific task force segment. The example provided voids an opportunity for 10% recharge, disables slotting of other blast powers effectively, and restricts your build in terms of availability to other opportunities, such is the same as having to use a KB->KD IO in nearly every KB power to actually eek out performance below other regular blast sets to actually have your manipulation secondary play "cover your ass" on a DPS class. Yes, it's a slot-efficiency gain, no one denies that, but arguing it's too powerful is straight up absurd when there's already Seismic which serves as just proof that KD-centric blast sets are balanced and given how starkly similar these powers are in DPA/animations/etc. there's functionally no balance-worthy changes necessary to make it not "too powerful." Also, by it being optional, you actually increase build diversity by being able to actually slot things efficiently and access manipulation secondaries in a far more enhanced way than you would otherwise whilst still keeping the KB variation if desired, further given this suggestion, you could still choose to keep only a select few KB->KD powers if desired. These aren't removed, you don't decrease diversity, you increase and expand it.

The problem arises during missions where the AH is unavailable, but you'd like to actually get large inspirations. Yes, you can theoretically email them to yourself, but the email system is still a bit chaotic and there is a risk of accidentally sending the wrong things and/or being limited by email constrictions. I also have several characters and am at the point that influence is entirely meaningless for me now, so I'd actually like to just waste my time/inf/whatever into things that tend to matter at all.

While I am pretty sure I know where @Luminara stands in this argument, and likely disagree with the poster, I believe I understand what they're indicating. They're saying that human beings would know better than to chase mobs around constantly dropping their "efficiency" in favor of trying to relentlessly run after something they should know better that is out of reach. Therefore, the people who are not smart enough to recognize this are of an intellectually inferior species, "cats." They're not talking about teammates actually quitting the TF or recommending actions to take. They're saying people should understand what's going on in a given scenario and stop making dumb decisions. I just don't agree with the principle that other people should have to put up with other people's bullshit and slow everyone else down in favor of catering to their wants and desires, not needs. There shouldn't be a need to chase enemies around in the first place to as bad of a degree as KB causes is my opinion, and thus likely deserves a form of power auditing or workarounds that help to alleviate the issue where there are currently none.

Then it would have to be one hell of a set, and provide some very nice bonuses like 10% recharge and the KB->KD better not be the 6th slot bonus. The reason for the change is so that sets actually get decent performance that isn't a massive hit akin to having to slot several powers with sudden acceleration and kill most builds out of viability for their performances. Also, KB magnitudes are not created the same, therefore this is a bit wishful thinking to reduce them all to the point that would properly KD. Implementation-wise I don't see how this works even if it went by percentages like 30% because some would still be over the limit needed to turn KB into KD, and some would even be so low in KB that there would be no effect whatsoever. I don't see this as an actual solution overall.

Yes, for the experiment, it is well done and I did not fault @Galaxy Brain's numbers. I think it's actually remarkable and very helpful information. The problem has already been stated though that the reason EB has not been doing well is because of gameplay effects associated with the secondary manipulation powersets, and it leads to too drastic of a performance drop once considered. So when these variables do come into play because every single Blaster has access to a manipulation secondary, the results are far different. You'd see Fire Blast shoot up the ranks along with Psychic Blast because Fire Manipulation provides what those were lacking. Energy Blast actively goes against things that would help its DPS and efficiency performances. It demonstrably harms the user to utilize the effect. It is not a net-positive to use the KB on the powers. It is plain fact and there is data literally demonstrating that. If I had to just spitball a guess, it's probably about a 30-50% drop off given how anti-synergistic it is vs the 15% that's displayed. Edit: Just for humor's sake, I bet it's probably better to just not use Energy Blast as a set AT ALL and only use your secondary manipulation powerset vs mobs until you only have one boss left assuming you kept the KB effects. The only way to seriously improve that efficiency and make your primary set worthwhile to use is to KB->KD many powers and cost so many proc opportunities. It's the reason I do not recommend EB as a set.

The only thing to note would be that this seems to test the Blast sets (correct me if I'm wrong) just based on either not that active secondary like Tactical Arrow which won't really vastly improve damage numbers and is also ranged, or almost entirely ignores that part of the conversation. This is where shit starts to hit the fan for Energy where it becomes almost as bad as AR imo, because when you consider the biggest winner (Fire Blast) has nearly 100% synergy with Fire Manipulation the gap just widens immensely between what Energy can actually combo with without KD enhancements, and where other sets that didn't have to seem "bad" like Psy Blast, Psy Blast ends up doing very well for its ST chain and being able to do considerably better than these results would have you believe when paired with Fire Manipulation. That is why Psychic Blast/Fire Manipulation is still a popular speedrunning build. The problem is it's not just Energy Blast's synergy with Fire Manipulation alone, it's any sort of Manipulation set that likes to be in close range gets screwed by the KB sideways.