So is Energy just an anathema to good players?

[Aurora_Girl]

It's been said a bunch here, and those of us who are/were long time folks know it'll never really be over, but I wholly support more and more knockback. 

 

My first 50 on live was my namesake, En/En blaster. Knockback is awesome. You feel like a freaking hero. Yes, if you're a melee you have to take a couple of steps to stab/punch/etc.  Deal. If you didn't want to walk to attack you should have picked a range toon. 

 

Positioning is so inherently important to using your powers to their fullest. Hate cones? Learn their shape and how best to utilize them. Actually move around rather than just hovering in place or sitting down in a spawn. The recent massive upgrade to travel power synchronicity has made it easier than ever to do this. If you're noticing too much scatter, move around laterally and sweep the mobs back together; if you're hover-blasting, just do the same (with the added bonus of three-dimensional mobility and speed).

 

Knockback is a *tool*. Its effectiveness or misuse is not inherent, it comes from the user. 

 

[Xenosone]

Had a kheld kb a spawn i was tanking also knocking everything out of the very visible aoe place powers(water spout?) And did it constantly. So bad players abound but some people love pvp'ing thier team

[Triumphant]

Honestly, on a full team, you've got 8 people.  At least one of them ought to be a controller with good lockdown powers.  Once the tank has the aggro dialed in, the controller locks down the mobs and then the energy blasters can fire away.  You'll still get a mob or two bouncing around, but that's part of the fun IMO (even when I'm running a tanker or other melee toon).

 

I think PUGs are the real problem, though, because you send out the invite and then you get what you get.  Team composition is random, so you might get a nice mix of AT's or maybe 1 blaster and 7 scrappers.  You just never know.  Level of experience with the game by players in a PUG is entirely random, as well, so they may not grasp how all the game effects interact yet.  In these instances, I think you just deal.  When I play melee toons in a PUG I just use Combat Teleport macros or the "F" key to fight.  Yeah, there's a lot of chasing mobs.  That's just how it is and I don't mind it.  It reflects how fights are in the comics.  I mean sure, you see team tactics in comic books.  What you don't see is  every enemy glom onto the biggest tank on the team every fight, and stand there flailing ineffectually, while they allow ranged toons to pick them off.  If hero teams did that in the comics, it might work once or twice, then the villains would  figure out that the X-men (or whoever) just uses the same, predictable tactics every time, and quickly adapt.

 

Even in a purely game experience context, having every battle resolve in this rote way every time, would quickly grow boring.  A little randomness and chaos keeps players on their toes and helps make things interesting, IMO (especially once characters become very powerful and team play grows ridiculously easy, even on +4/8).

[flakoff]

I have an en blaster and sent, both max dam and both with all kd so don't see the issue.

Some people forget that it's a game and concept and fun rule.

Though others are about speed times or challenge, the game can be played on any setting to make you feel like the hero and is still fun.

I have a pb that is all kd too as obviously in teams it can annoy others if a mob is suddenly scattered. 

[FUBARczar]

On 10/31/2019 at 9:38 PM, Rathulfr said:

Much of the concerns about knockback are overblown, and one can completely ameliorate most concerns by simply being a little more thoughtful about it.  As a once and current Energy Blaster, here are my simple rules for managing knockback on Energy Blast:

 

1. Put KB-to-KD IOs in your AoEs.  You don't need KB-to-KD IOs on all of your attacks.  KB is fine on single-target attacks, especially when soloing: it's a form of damage mitigation/control.  KB is a headache on AoE attacks, as it affects you and your team.  Therefore, only your AoE powers really need to the KB2KD IOs: Energy Torrent, Explosive Blast, and Nova.  I usually skip Energy Torrent (I hate cones), so I have the KB2KD IOs in the latter two, only.
2. You knock it, you kill it.  If you do keep KB on your single-target attacks, then you take full responsibility for your KB targets.  Don't KB and run: stay on target until it's down.
3. Pay attention to your targets.  Don't KB buff/debuff anchors.  Don't KB tank/brute targets.  Focus on picking off the stragglers or those menacing the other squishies.
4. Pay attention to your backstop.  What's behind your intended target: a wall or a ledge?  Try to KB into solid objects, or towards the rest of the team.  You don't necessarily have to line up every target like a billiard shot, but do try be aware of what's going on around the targets and elsewhere on the field of battle.
5. Hover over and blast down.  Hover is the Energy Blast-er's best friend.  Get above the fray and KB down into the floor, if possible.  Hover also offers great mobility, a little defense, and a slot for LotG +Recharge and/or Kismet +ToHit.

 

Have fun and happy blasting!

 

I can affirm that Energy Blast is overblown. Blowing enemies everywhere.  

 

Perhaps the only thing more annoying than having Energy Blast on the team is someone running around with hurricane.  

 

And KB>KD is most assuredly a heavy tax.  

 

Also I have tried Energy Blast / Ninja Blaster.  And I must say that EB was very underwhelming DMG-wise, and Nova still sent bodies hurling even with the heavy KB>KD tax IO slotted.  So I rolled as PSI/Ninja and it's awesome.  

 

So to the OP you will most likely regret it if you roll Energy Blast.

[Yaliw]

I wouldn't mind the KB so much if I could control it. Due to it being a chance, it is inefficient and a gamble. It's the major problem with the set

 

honestly, can we just have all the powers changed to KD? Or more conservatively, give us a way to control the knockback? It really sucks that a power won't KB something when I want it to and visa versa.

[El D]

It is interesting that of all the various damage mitigation tools from range damage sets, Energy Blast has the only one that gets negated or outright maligned when a player has allies. -Def, -Res, -Acc, Slows, etc? All still work just fine. Knockback? Rendered next to useless if you've got a controller or a dominator, or occasionally becomes an outright frustration to every melee/debuffing character on the team if not 'used right.' It's the only ranged set whose mitigation tool comes with an effective skill ceiling, and even then if a player does know how to effectively use knockback, at high levels/end game it doesn't provide nearly the same benefit that the other effects do.

 

... and the other side of that issue is that Energy Blast has been here since the beginning. 'The ranged knockback blast set' is its core identity, to such a point that people definitely would complain if it got changed. The best compromise I can think of would be making Energy Blast into knockdown, and allowing a global IO (or Hell, an inherent toggle) for folks who want the set to still do full knockback. Having to slot KB to KD IOs in each individual desired power, much as I understand how it's supposed to provide direct modular control, is still a dumb set up. Enhancements are supposed to enhance the powers to do more, not constrain them to do less because their base design was considered just that frustrating.

 

ADDENDUM - Realized that still wouldn't get rid of the issue when there's multiple Knockdown effects going; they'd still get converted into Knockback. I think part of the solution ought to be removing the 'Knockdown becomes Knockback at any mag higher than X' and making them separate status effects. Thematically I get why it was set up like that, but mechanically that 'escalation of a single status effect' is what caused these shenanigan-worthy IO-slotting solutions in the first place. If KD and KB were outright separate from the get-go, it'd be so much easier to manage them. You want to change your KD into KB or your KB into KD? That's an actual choice the player gets to directly manage now, rather than the game forcing them to scale back their own powers or having their efforts stymied by teaming up with someone else who didn't slot the same thing (or who did slot the same thing, and the game just goes 'Oops, you're still over X mag. Too bad!').

Edited September 24, 2022 by El D

[Tomgreen1]

Take the 2 slot tax and revel in the insane cooldown reduction times to feed your secondary powerset by using Knockback to Knockdown IO then Force Feedback. This is how energy isn't the worst. Slot the hell out of Force feedback and don't look at the 2 slots per knockback power as a loss.

Edited September 25, 2022 by Tomgreen1

[kelika2]

I have regrets replying to a thread so old without the ability to delete my own post.

 

Ass butter.

Edited September 25, 2022 by kelika2