Focused Feedback: Blaster Secondary Revamp

[summers]

If anyone is interested in the new real, base numbers at 50 for Ninja Training they are:

 

Immobilising Dart: 50.05 was 25.02

Sting of the Wasp: 109 was 64.51

The Lotus Drops: 75.363 was 75.63 (just had recharge dropped, no change in damage)

Golden Dragonfly: 197.97 was 126.8

 

These now seem much more in line with Martial Combat, thank you!

[Draeth Darkstar]

On 11/16/2020 at 9:05 PM, Captain Powerhouse said:

Psi Blast for blasters likely didn't get the 100ft treatment because devs used to be terrified about the impact of that set in PvP, since so many armor sets lacked psi resistance. I thought I had fixed that range thing a long time ago, I'll have to look into it (but we trying to stick to a feature freeze right now so might not get revised until after page 1 launches.)

 

@Jackie I hear you about stealth in Darkness Manip, but as noted, feature freeze at this point. I wrote it down on my list of things to evaluate for future updates [insert standard "not promising it will happen" disclaimer here].

Is it possible that you could take a further look at some damage updates for Blaster secondaries in the future, too? This Beta discussion has been so completely dominated by the Tactical Arrow changes that I don't really feel the other sets got a fair shake, and I was really hoping for Ice and Electric to get a little more love than they did.

The Frozen Aura change was nice, and Freezing Touch getting a longer DOT is situationally a bit better, but it now clips itself like the Sonic DOT was if you're Blapping and overall Ice is still one of the weakest secondaries, if not the weakest, for both ST and AoE, and it doesn't even feature the best control or secondary goodies to compensate.

Electric is doing better than it was on live just by having its sustain moved, but it's still got really, really weak AoE and control and its secondary effect is... we'll say hotly debated on usefulness, which is a harsh set of drawbacks for an all melee set.

[csr]

I tested the Blaster sustains systematically again.  There are now only a few things of note that I found.  I didn't list sustains that are working as expected, just those where something caught my attention.  Anything I consider to be a definite bug is in orange.

• Dark Manipulation / Touch of the Beyond:  Seems to be working as intended now.  The Terrorize Protection scales from 3.15 to 7.27.  Kuji-In Toh's in Ninja Training scales from 3.6 to 8.3.  The Stun Protection in Energy Mastery's Energize also scales from 3.6 to 8.3.  Plant Manipulation's Wild Fortress grants the same 3.15 to 7.27 Mag scale for its Confuse Protection however.  The Sleep Protection in Sonic Manipulation's Sound Barrier is 3.6 to 8.3.  I'm not sure if there is a reason for the differences, they just caught my eye.  (Part of being systematic.)
• Electricity Manipulation / Dynamo:  The right-click context information only lists the old offensive components and makes no mention of the +Reg or +Rec.  The "Info" and "Detailed Info" sections are correct, it's just the short help on the initial right-click that is wrong.  The stealth suppression now appears to work as I'd expect.  Dynamo's offensive abilities suppress when stealthed until you actually aggro.  With on-level foes I was able to sneak up behind them with only 36' of stealth and didn't aggro until I moved to where they could see me.  Very low level (-39 levels) foes wouldn't aggro at all until I dropped stealth entirely and the toggle hit them.  (Previous builds had me aggroing as soon as I came within range at less than 55' of stealth.)
• Fire Manipulation / Cauterizing Aura:  Has an 11 target cap.  Dynamo has a 10 target cap.  I assumed the latter was correct.  In either case, they should probably hit the same number of targets.  Cauterizing Aura would also hit -21s even at 36' of stealth while Dynamo wouldn't against -20s.  Lastly, only an 8' radius on Cauterize Aura compared to 20' on Dynamo.
• Ice Manipulation / Frigid Protection:  Has an 11 target cap.  Will aggro -20s at 35' of stealth.  30' radius, but no damage, just debuff.
• Martial Combat / Reaction Time:  The +Recovery is now working properly.  10 target cap, 30' radius, debuff only.  Won't aggro -20s at 36' of stealth, but will at 30' of stealth.  The absorb of Reaction Time seems lower than that of Frigid Protection, which appears to tick for the same amount but faster.
• Sonic Manipulation / Sound Barrier:  The first "Show Floaters" option in the costume creator actually appears to be the "Bright Sonic Attack" option.  The absorb in this power appears especially weak;  even weaker than for Martial Combat's Reaction Time.  I'm presuming this is because of the included Resistance.
• Temporal Manipulation / Temporal Mending:  Now working properly.

Edited November 20, 2020 by csr
Typoes

[Vanden]

3 minutes ago, csr said:

Fire Manipulation / Cauterizing Aura:  Has an 11 target cap.  Dynamo has a 10 target cap.  I assumed the latter was correct.  In either case, they should probably hit the same number of targets. 

Cauterizing Aura is the correct one. The player character is one of the targets of the power, and counts against the limit.

[csr]

1 minute ago, Vanden said:

Cauterizing Aura is the correct one. The player character is one of the targets of the power, and counts against the limit.

All the auras that effect both the caster and enemies should probably have the same cap one way or another.  The Detailed Info is pretty inconsistent too.  Dynamo and Cauterizing Aura both list the self-affecting components.  Frigid Protection lists nothing at all.  Reaction Time's Detailed Info may be bugged.  I didn't notice before, but it actually lists self buffs to movement and Recharge instead of foe debuffs.

[Wavicle]

19 minutes ago, csr said:

All the auras that effect both the caster and enemies should probably have the same cap one way or another.  The Detailed Info is pretty inconsistent too.  Dynamo and Cauterizing Aura both list the self-affecting components.  Frigid Protection lists nothing at all.  Reaction Time's Detailed Info may be bugged.  I didn't notice before, but it actually lists self buffs to movement and Recharge instead of foe debuffs.

Those are the buffs if you turn the power Off.

[Bopper]

36 minutes ago, Vanden said:

Cauterizing Aura is the correct one. The player character is one of the targets of the power, and counts against the limit.

It depends, actually. Now that we have the Activation Effect Group, you don't need to include yourself as a target. That is why Dynamo is set to 10, it used AEG. I dont know if Cauterize uses AEG.

[csr]

30 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

Those are the buffs if you turn the power Off.

I forgot about that.  I never turn the power off.

[Wavicle]

3 hours ago, csr said:

I forgot about that.  I never turn the power off.

Yea me neither.

 

If the toggle dropped when mezzed it would make sense, but I don’t think it does.

Edited November 19, 2020 by Wavicle

[csr]

1 hour ago, Wavicle said:

Yea me neither.

 

If the toggle dropped when mezzed it would make sense, but I don’t think it does.

That I know.  It doesn't drop.  That was specifically what I started testing - that the sustains all worked when mezzed.

[chi1701]

Mental Manipulation, with telekinetic thrust a good defensive option being moved up and world of confusion replacing it, will world of confusion be buffed to be more comparable to other blaster secondary's such as radius so the removal of a good defensive power is not being replaced with a power that is only useful for io set bonuses? 

 

For someone who was confused, telekinetic thrust is a single target melee knockback (KB) ability, enables someone to kb an opponent out of melee range keeping your self safer. World of Confusion is a 8ft radious or melee is ft so its 1ft more than melee range which does minor damage and could confuse your target also preventing damage. But the 8ft radious isnt as good as some of the 15 to 20ft radious of other blaster secondaries and the proc rate for confuse is not reliable.

Edited November 19, 2020 by chi1701

[Lusiphur Malache]

On 10/24/2020 at 8:41 AM, Jimmy said:

If you are concealed (from Stealth or a similar power) this power will not impact foes unless you are in combat (it will no longer accidentally break stealth)

What if I slot a damage in it, does that constitute starting combat?

[csr]

On 11/19/2020 at 12:07 PM, Darkesyde said:

What if I slot a damage in it, does that constitute starting combat?

Not in general.  Straight damage slotting won't make a difference, procs might.  I only tested an Eradication damage proc in Cauterizing Aura.  I didn't check other powers or procs to see if they broke stealth.  All of the sustains with foe affecting powers have the latter suppressed when the enemies can't see you.  There are some surprises with foes far below your level being hit without having been aggroed (36' of stealth seems to avoid that, while 35' typically does not), but versus on level stuff you basically have to aggro either by being seen or by attacking before the offensive components of the power take effect.

Edited November 20, 2020 by csr
Accidentally deleted a sentence and added it back.

[Jimmy]

As the patch is nearing completion, we are no longer seeking feedback on this topic.

 

The latest patch notes can be found in the Beta Patch Notes forum.

 

If you encounter any bugs during this last phase of testing, please report them in the Beta Bug Reports forum.

 

Once the patch is live, feel free to post feedback in the Suggestions & Feedback forum. and bug reports in the Bug Reports forum.

 

Thank you!