Force Redux

Yes, I agree Six-Six, having the ability to do *something* even while mezzed, if a HUGE perk. Helps you feel engaged. Yes, my stealth-blaster is Awesome Sauce, kind of like a ranged stalker. I squee every time I use my Snipe and get like 900+ damage and knock them off their feet! Very visceral! 😁

Danger Will Robinson! Danger! Blaster appreciation post (meandering thoughts not at all related to mechanics or builds) Back when dinosaurs walked the earth (before Issue 3), I tried my hand at a Fire/Fire hover blaster named Sun King. About the time I got to Perez Park, I parked it and never came back to it. It never jived with me. The tradeoff for damage vs. frailty was too much, and I wasn't willing to give it a try. During Live I settled on Scrappers, Tankers and Masterminds with a side-helping of Controller. (clearly Issue 24 was kind to Blasters, since my experiment...) On HC, I've mostly been spending my time on anything with a support set: Masterminds, Defenders and Controllers, chiefly. But I had never once touched a Blaster since those many years ago. I tried Sentinels, but I found their damage uninspiring (fun, but uninspiring). I have several Tankers, and a few Stalkers, but in general I hate jockeying for position on teams to get to mobs. I like range. Range is good. However, I always stood on the high DPS sidelines, never ready to trade off the comfort of control and buffs/debuffs for the raw BOOM! power. Then I ran last week with a Beam/Sonic Manipulation blaster and I really liked the /sonic visuals. I'm a sucker for visuals. Yes, the ring-aura was all it took to get me to try an AT I'd avoided for over 16 years. So I rolled up a Sonic/Sonic. I knew it wasn't the most optimal pairing, but I liked the theme and also the idea that I could do DPS and also help force multiply the team. Visually, it worked well, and in play, it was blappy with combat teleport binds helping me get back in and out for cones vs pbaoes. However, I lacked a certain something and I parked it at 41. So I did some research, and rolled up a Ice/Martial, which I felt was a much better Blapper, and had some built-in safety in the Marital Arts secondary. Style points for my Sub-Zero martial artist knockoff. Got to 44 and realized I still wasn't sold on Blapping just yet. Lots of work trying to softcap R/S/L even with Cold Epic (I could respec into Fighting to achieve it, though). This one went on the shelf, but its a good combo, I will likely return to it later. But for now, I thought, what about mostly ranged? More research. Third Blaster. Beam/Devices. "CLICK". Right from the start. The visuals. The solid ST damage, the utility of Devices. It all fell together. In short order, with some TFs, Radios, an AE farm, MSR and a few solo missions, I had this character, Android Assassin, up to Alpha T3. Now, one of my top favorite characters (competing with TA/Dark Defender, Demons/Dark MM and Plant/Nature Controller). How did I miss this AT before? I was so dead-set against Blasters, but I've been convinced! I'm eyeballing other combos (Ice/Plant I see you over there).... So, big thanks to all those who posted info in these forums that I poured through to come up with good choices. New blaster, happy blaster! TLDR: I got over my comfort zone and decided to invest in a pure damage AT.

Yes they can be clicked while mezzed

I'm beyond impressed! 😳😁👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

As an alternative, hover and combat teleport address immobility and quick positioning, especially with binds! 🙂

Willpower is a solid low-maintanance set that performs admirably with little attention. Build for some extra Defense and fire away.

What anime is this? Demon Slayer?

I'm partial to Spines

It's still a good idea. The damage cap is still way out of reach for pets even with all three powers in effect.

So I'll opine that some sets would only need one or two of their powers to also affect the user, and that's it. It would be entirely balanced to help those sets stay abreast of changes over time with other sets that clearly are outperforming them in some capacity. Clearly allowing every buff power to be self-affecting is entirely not balanced, but also not needed. As follows, here are my suggestions: The sets that probably are the biggest candidates for a little self-buffing are the "shield' sets, such as: Force Field Sonic Resonation Thermal Radiation Cold Manipulation All of these would benefit from a reduced-benefit 'splash' from their two shields. Perhaps anywhere from 33% to 50% value. And that's it. They don't need Forge or other buffs to be self-affecting, just give them some benefit from their shields and I think that would be balanced. Some other sets that could also provide some minor benefit to the user are: Kinetics - allow them to receive a partial benefit from their Increase Density. Empathy - allow them to receive a partial benefit from Fortitude. Pain Domination - allow them to receive a partial benefit from Enforced Morale and also make this power an AoE as with Kinetic's Increase Density. Poison - allow this to get the same treatment as Trick Arrow (i.e. review those debuffs, and allow Alkaloid to be an AoE heal instead of ST or be an untargeted cone ala Nature) The sets from my experience that don't need any self-buffing beyond what they might already do (or not): Trick Arrow Time Manipulation Dark Miasma Electrical Affinity Nature Affinity Radiation Emission Storm Summoning Traps Just my 2 INF.

Yes. I've used it as well as other epics. While it doesn't have a shield, bonfire provides significant mitigation and damage. But it does require a KD IO for this performance.

Very welcome! If in the future you get Void Judgement you will have two similar nukes!

Okay, just went over the build. Its built very different from how I normally do things, but that's not bad, just part of the beauty of the game. You're just shy of Ranged softcap, which is good. I like that. Dark's -ToHit makes up the differnce and then some. Solid. No Wild Bastion? Its a strong absorb power and I think core to the Nature set...why not? As a Defender I'd take that over Blackstar (and yes, Blackstar is lovely).

Straw man argument. I don't think anyone here has argued for blanket self buffing. Reasonable suggestions have revolved around only allowing some buffs at a reduced amount. Let's leave the hyperbole at the door, it brings nothing to the discussion.

How's this project coming along? 🙂

Ah... Well that's good news!

I haven't forgotten. On my list for tomorrow!

What changes were there? I didn't pick up anything on the patch notes...😳

I suspect the proc review will focus on damage. That's just my gut. Hopefully any review will also see about improving some non damage procs like sleep or immob procs... 🤔🧐🙂

My best guess would be that damage procs beyond the first in a power may have diminished returns...

/em holdtorch Rest in peace, hero.

I'll try to look at this in Mid's later this week 🙂

Thank you!

Group Fly is too slow for the pylon chase. I typically don't summon my pets til we're in the bowl for the above mentioned reasons. Until then I lean on my secondary to support the league. Another reason Group Fly needs a rework. Please, devs. Teleport, Energy Melee, Trick Arrow...all modern day miracles. Can we get Flight Pool attended to as well? 😁😁😁

@Luminara would you know the macro image for EMP Arrow? I can't look it up right now, but it's the only thing I need since I mostly use it defensively, on my own position. Everything else I manually target. 🙂