Focused Feedback: Blaster Secondary Revamp

[Lockpick]

I took in 3 of my Blasters to test out changes for powers that I currently have in game.

 

 

Energy Manipulation

•  Total Focus
  • Cast time reduced from 3.3 seconds to 2.53 seconds

 

Great change, thank you.

 

 

Martial Combat

•  Ki Push
  • Damage increased from scale 0.8 to scale 1.32
•  Reaction Time
  • Absorb has been adjusted to match Cauterizing Aura's Heal per Second and can now stack up for up to 12 seconds
  • No longer shows floating numbers by default
    • A new "Show Floaters" theme is available if you prefer seeing the Absorb numbers

 

Ki Push change is great.  I'm not a big fan of the hokey mechanics of Reaction Time when deactivating the power gives you a burst of speed and some recharge.  It doesn't make sense to deactivate a power to get a benefit.  Can these effects be added to the power itself?

 

I'm also not a fan of the slow affect aggroing bad guys, but it is what it is.

 

Description:  (Paragon Wiki):

You attune yourself to the world around you, moving with preternatural speed. All enemies nearby move slowly and have reduced recharge, and you can absorb small amounts of damage every 2 seconds. When Reaction Time is deactivated, you gain a burst of speed for a short duration, increasing your own recharge and move speed.

 

 

Ninja Training

•  Immobilizing Dart
  • Toxic damage over time doubled to bring it in line with other single target immobilize powers
•  Sting of the Wasp
  • Recharge increased from 5s to 10s
  • Damage increased accordingly (per the standard damage formulas)
•  Shinobi
  • No longer grants a damage buff outside of stealth
  • Now grants the caster a 20% chance to inflict lethal criticals with every attack
    • The amount of damage will be based on the recharge time of the power
    • Usually this will be 80% of the standard damage formula
    • This bonus damage ignores enhancements and damage buffs
•  Golden Dragonfly
  • Recharge increased from 12s to 20s
  • Damage increased accordingly (per the standard damage formulas)

 

Good changes overall, but I would prefer adding the movement buff into Shinobi like Scrappers and Sentinels have.  For me this was the major reason to take this set and this entire time I have been waiting on a bug fix.

 

Edits Begin Here:

Tactical Arrow

•  Electrified Net Arrow
  • Range reduced from 80ft to 50ft to be in line with other Blaster Manipulation T1 Immobilize powers
  • Endurance cost increased from 5.2 to 7.8 to be in line with other Blaster Manipulation T1 Immobilize powers
•  Ice Arrow
  • Range reduced from 80ft to 60ft to be in line with other Blaster Manipulation ST mez powers
  • Recharge increased from 12s to 16s
  • Hold changed from Mag 3, Scale 12 to:
    • Mag 2, Scale 10 (non stacking)
    • Mag 1, Scale 6 (stacking)
•  Upshot
  • +Recharge buff reduced to from 30% to 15%
  • +Damage buff reduced from 100% to 81.25%
  • +ToHit reduced from 20% to 15%
•  Flash Arrow
  • This power's effects are no longer irresistible
•  Gymnastics (Replaces Agility)
  • Gymnastics and Agility have been merged into a new toggle power
  • Provides knockback protection, a 1.75% defence buff, a recharge bonus, a movement speed buff and some slow / mez protection
  • If you previously had Agility, you now have Gymnastics
•  ESD Arrow
  • Hold now only applies to robots.
  • Hold changed from Mag 3, Scale 8 to:
    • Mag 2, Scale 8 (non stacking)
    • Mag 1, Scale 5 (stacking)
  • Added Stun against non robots:
    • Mag 2, Scale 8 (non stacking)
    • Mag 1, Scale 5 (stacking)
  • Now accepts Stun enhancements and sets
•  Oil Slick Arrow (Replaced Gymnastics)
  • Similar to the Trick Arrow version, but does not have a defence debuff and only has a 15ft radius
  • If you previously had Gymnastics, you now have Oil Slick Arrow

 

I am not a fan of many of these changes especially on the Range of the powers being reduce.  I chose this set for theme and to play at range.  I use ENA in my attack chain and moving up to use it is going to make it pointless for me, but I am still forced to take it.

 

While I like the merger of Gymnastics and Agility I don't like the changes.  If you are going to merge them combine the powers as opposed to nerfing a portion of it.  I would rather keep both powers as is than merge a waeakened version of the powers together and giving OSA.  I doubt I will ever take OSA.

 

Devices

•  Taser
  • Fixed this power doing PvE damage in PvP
•  Gun Drone
  • Now has 80% resistance to all damage
  • Taunt aura reduced to 8ft, mag 3, max of 4 targets
  • Death explosion now has a knockup component

 

These changes seem reasonable.

 

I can't really comment on the other sets as I haven't played them to high enough level.  Although I will say this seems like a lot of work that wasn't really needed.

 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2020 by Lockpick
Added to post

[WindDemon21]

*ignore quoted reply misread*

 

But really, let's please make boost range auto, and PB and energize a toggle.

Edited October 24, 2020 by WindDemon21

[WindDemon21]

And for all seriousness, across the game, can we PLEASE make all ranged cone powers have a 16 target cap where their taoe like powers have it. It's so dumb that they only have a 10 target cap, really hurting sets like sonic blast, and dark blast.

[Tater Todd]

I'm loving the overall changes to /Ninja Training, such a big buff!  Now I'm going to hit MIDS and make a million /Nin Blaster toons lol.

[Rejolt]

Testing Electric Manipulation: Concern going in on Force of Nature was recharge vs usefulness.

 

Been able to get the stun on Lts to about 10 seconds, minions 15. Recharge in the 25 range. +FF proc fires almost every time due to the recharge even on one target.

This is an every mob power even on speed runs but you wont be using it 2 or 3 times per group.

 

EDIT: FoT still has a base accuracy of 1.0.

 

Dynamo:

Accurate Healing not slottable currently but the power does have an accuracy check.

No massive end cost toggle anymore. It has no end cost currently.

 

So your build has more endurance and FoT is going to stun LTs but you won't knock them down/back every time. There is a gap on live for having mobs constantly on their butts of a few seconds (even with TStrike with Overwhelming Force in it) so the trade off here is FF proc is up less often, mobs are stunned with a small gap vs KD'd and you have more endurance.

Edited October 24, 2020 by Rejolt

[Rejolt]

8 minutes ago, Tater Todd said:

I'm loving the overall changes to /Ninja Training, such a big buff!  Now I'm going to hit MIDS and make a million /Nin Blaster toons lol.

My only issue is I love the +movement on sents and scraps for /nin. If blasters dont get it i'll keep my dp/nin/tools sent in the playing rotation.

I'm pushing for a modest movement and jump height buff to it.

[Vanden]

3 hours ago, Rejolt said:

Accurate Healing not slottable currently but the power does have an accuracy check.

Cauterizing Aura lost the ability to slot Accurate Healing sets, too, because the heal isn't dependent on the tohit check. Not a change I necessarily agree with, but there it is.

 

Edit: Oh wait, that change actually didn't go through. Well, it still might, now we've brought it up.

Edited October 24, 2020 by Vanden

[rciccolini]

Playing Tactical Arrow and Martial Combat.

 

The increase to Ki Push isn't as noticeable as I thought it was going to be. Going back and forth between live and test I don't think I'd notice a difference if I wasn't watching for it. It's a nice statistical change be didn't really affect game play all that much.

 

The Throw Sand change is good, still as effective up front - can't be stacked in a broken manner.

 

The change to Electrified Net Arrow felt awful. Like, shelf my Archery/TA blaster awful. It used to be part of my chain, and the range change completely disrupts the ranged chain in a way the means I can't use it as my opener any more. On a set with no melee powers at all that is supposed to support a ranged style, this essentially kills the way I play the character since I can't open with it.

 

The range "felt" like 40, about half my archery powers? But that can be hard to judge. (I know it was supposed to be 50, so maybe in my mind I am rounding up to 3/4 range of normal powers.)

 

The Upshot nerfs didn't "feel" bad. I mean the recharge was a little less noticable but it wasn't a change to the character in any meaningful way.

[Dispari]

Getting a weird bug on my newly made archery/nin blaster. While Shinobi is toggled on she frequently gets interrupted by the present opening animation out of nowhere, which roots her in place. It only happens while Shinobi is on. It was happening every time I trained up at Ms Liberty. Other people saw me opening presents so it wasn't just on my end.

And while I'm at it I also support giving Shinobi a move speed component. It's thematic and move buffs are harmless.

[Rejolt]

2 minutes ago, Dispari said:

Getting a weird bug on my newly made archery/nin blaster. While Shinobi is toggled on she frequently gets interrupted by the present opening animation out of nowhere, which roots her in place. It only happens while Shinobi is on. It was happening every time I trained up at Ms Liberty. Other people saw me opening presents so it wasn't just on my end.

And while I'm at it I also support giving Shinobi a move speed component. It's thematic and move buffs are harmless.

I'm even good with Tactical Arrow having better jump height but Ninjitsu having better running speed so the two sets feel different. Tactical constantly jumps from spot to to spot while Ninjas run target to target.

[Eva Destruction]

9 minutes ago, Replacement said:

You know what would be way more helpful feedback?  Showing where Elec is relative to other sets and championing positive changes instead of shouting "rollback" the moment you see something you don't agree with.

 

I am wanting this power to go the other way, and become the blap set by turning this into a Sustain version of Conductive Aura (elec control; scaling regen/recovery but with way better numbers).

I haven't played all the other sets, so I can't say how it performs in comparison.  Which is why I'm asking what makes it underpowered, and how these changes are supposed to fix that.  The Thunderstrike change is a buff, good.  But the change to Force of Thunder is a change to bring all the powersets in line by making them all the same.   Elec Manipulation didn't have a reliable AoE hard control power, why give it one?  Then of course it has to have the recharge increased to balance it against other sets, and you can't have a 60-second sustain in a 90-second recharge power, so it has to move.   Fire manip already has a sustain in its damage aura, so why not make Lightning Field into a clone of that, bam done.  Easy, balanced, but cookie-cutter and it doesn't give players any added incentive to choose Elec Manip over any other set, and doesn't really make the set any better as a blap set, unless saving 1.23 seconds in FoT-clicking time every minute really matters that much to you. 

 

Some other options would be to a) leave FoT as is, with its unreliable stun and reliable knockback, and sustain intact.  (I'd consider it a buff if the knockback were changed to knockdown so I wouldn't have to waste a slot converting it, but I'm not sure I want to start that argument again)   b) leave the sustain in FoT, make the stun and recharge changes, increase the sustain duration to 120 seconds, c) move the sustain to Power Sink where I think it makes thematic sense.

 

 

[Eva Destruction]

35 minutes ago, WindDemon21 said:

And for all seriousness, across the game, can we PLEASE make all ranged cone powers have a 16 target cap where their taoe like powers have it. It's so dumb that they only have a 10 target cap, really hurting sets like sonic blast, and dark blast.

Or Assault Rifle....

[WindDemon21]

4 minutes ago, Eva Destruction said:

Or Assault Rifle....

OMG yes,...

[Nemu]

FOT had a unique sustain mechanic. More importantly if the premise is to buff /elec then the FOT change is a nerf. I'd rather have 2 pbaoe knockdowns on a relatively short timer than a pbaoe stun on a long timer. The patch notes about blaster secondaries mention giving blasters incentives to go into melee, this change takes away some of that incentive. Compared the other ranged 90 second control options in other sets a pbaoe stun on a 90 second timer is vastly inferior. It's much easier to stack holds than it is to stack stuns, and most single target stuns from blaster primaries don't do any damage so they are instant skips, just like FOT will be if the changes make it to live.

 

Regarding dynamo, most players don't take blaster damage auras. There are some that do, but most players don't play melee blasters and melee blasters don't take damage auras because they already have enough damage and they don't want to deal with re-toggling when they get mezzed. Adding a pitiful amount of damage to a toggle sustain is not a buff. It is unnecessary in the first place.

 

/Elec is a melee blasters set and the way it works right now compliments that playstyle perfectly. I was ok with the 3.3 second animation time on TS, but I'll take that buff. The FOT change though is utter junk.

Edited October 24, 2020 by Nemu

[XaoGarrent]

lol so many nerfs for no reason

 

Having a mezz focused blaster secondary was already of dubious value over going for one more damage focused, especially given the current meta. This is a mistake.

 

I guess you guys really are trying to live up to the legacy of the live devs, Jack especially.

 

I guess Devices is just a better Tactical Arrow now, since it was already as good at the very least.

Edited October 24, 2020 by XaoGarrent

[Chris24601]

1 hour ago, Blackbird71 said:

I'm not sure how to feel about this.  Consolidating Agility and Gymnastics could be useful, but it messes with some slotting options and I've never felt that Tactical Arrow needed more crowd control, so losing options in favor of CC I'm not going to use is disappointing. 

One of my favorite things about Tac Arrow was that it had no Location-based powers at all... target, fire and forget. Oil Slick is worthless to me... on Test I ended up replacing it with Stealth and feel I got the better end of that deal. As someone else said... its another t9 to skip.

3 minutes ago, rciccolini said:

The change to Electrified Net Arrow felt awful. Like, shelf my Archery/TA blaster awful. It used to be part of my chain, and the range change completely disrupts the ranged chain in a way the means I can't use it as my opener any more. On a set with no melee powers at all that is supposed to support a ranged style, this essentially kills the way I play the character since I can't open with it.

But THIS is my main complaint about the changes. The range change utterly disrupted my attacks as well. Reduce the damage, reduce the immobilize duration, just don't kill the range. This is a "shelve my Archery/TA blaster" level change for me as well.

 

How bad is it for me? I'd take an Endurance-hog toggle power that bumps the range of Electrical Net and Ice Arrow back to the live distance IF you slot it to the ED soft cap and be happier with that then where I currently sit.

 

As to "encourage to get into melee"... why must every blaster be the same? The fun of Tactical Arrow was precisely that it WASN'T just a carbon copy and encouraged a very different playstyle from the upclose "Blapper." This sort of hegemony of design is what destroyed my interest in SWTOR. Sure, its easier to balance if everyone gets exactly the same stuff, but it sucks the soul out of playing them.

[Vanden]

1 minute ago, Chris24601 said:

As to "encourage to get into melee"... why must every blaster be the same?

Melee attacks and powers are a staple of Blaster secondaries. It's not about every Blaster being the same, it's about the power sets doing what they're expected to do, same as Blaster primary sets letting you attack from range or Controller secondaries giving you buffs and debuffs.

[Vanden]

I do think it would be better if Force of Thunder was 100% chance of knockdown rather than 30% chance of knockback, but having the sustain in Dynamo feels so much better to play for me.

[Keen]

53 minutes ago, Lockpick said:

I'm not a big fan of the hokey mechanics of Reaction Time when deactivating the power gives you a burst of speed and some recharge.  It doesn't make send to deactivate a power to get a benefit.  Can these effects be added to the power itself?

Yes please.

[Chris24601]

1 minute ago, Vanden said:

Melee attacks and powers are a staple of Blaster secondaries. It's not about every Blaster being the same, it's about the power sets doing what they're expected to do, same as Blaster primary sets letting you attack from range or Controller secondaries giving you buffs and debuffs.

If that was the intent then Tactical Arrow would have some strikes using the bow like a melee weapon (see the series "Arrow" for how that can work... probably using staff animations) and not exclusively ranged options.

 

TA was clearly designed to be a bit different from the norm... just like Storm is quite a bit different from the rest of the Support sets. There is room for variation within a concept and TA as the exception that proves the rule keeps Blaster Secondaries from being a dull rut where the only real choices are what special effects you want to look at as you do pretty much what every other blaster does.

[Vanden]

1 minute ago, Chris24601 said:

If that was the intent then Tactical Arrow would have some strikes using the bow like a melee weapon (see the series "Arrow" for how that can work... probably using staff animations) and not exclusively ranged options.

 

TA was clearly designed to be a bit different from the norm... just like Storm is quite a bit different from the rest of the Support sets. There is room for variation within a concept and TA as the exception that proves the rule keeps Blaster Secondaries from being a dull rut where the only real choices are what special effects you want to look at as you do pretty much what every other blaster does.

TA has no melee attacks because Powerhouse was working with extremely limited tools when he put it together, and couldn't make the animations work. Simple as that.

[Keleko]

I can't tell if the critical hits from Shinobi are working.  I don't see any indication in the damage when hitting that a critical hit has occurred, and the damage doesn't seem any different when hitting things.  I'm using a Dual Pistols/Ninja blaster.

 

How is it supposed to indicate in the chat log?  I was expecting it to show like Stalker/Scrapper critical hits as an extra damage entry on screen and in the log.

Edited October 24, 2020 by Keleko

[Nemu]

So rather than ramble on and complain about the change to FOT I'm going to offer a suggestion

 

The primary complaint from players about FOT is that it's not a toggle and have to be activated regularly

 

So make it a toggle, but once toggled on provide a click for the pbaoe KB power on the same 30 second timer. The tech is there already, at least for the click part. I don't know how it would affect enhancement allowance though.

Edited October 24, 2020 by Nemu

[Eva Destruction]

15 minutes ago, Nemu said:

FOT had a unique sustain mechanic. More importantly if the premise is to buff /elec then the FOT change is a nerf. I'd rather have 2 pbaoe knockdowns on a relatively short timer than a pbaoe stun on a long timer. The patch notes about blaster secondaries mention giving blasters incentives to go into melee, this change takes away some of that incentive. Compared the other ranged 90 second control options in other sets a pbaoe stun on a 90 second timer is vastly inferior. It's much easier to stack holds than it is to stack stuns, and most single target stuns from blaster primaries don't do any damage so they are instant skips, just like FOT will be if the changes make it to live.

The other drawback is that knockdowns stop enemies from running away.  Stuns just make them drunk-walk away at max speed.

 

16 minutes ago, Nemu said:

Regarding dynamo, most players don't take blaster damage auras. There are some that do, but most players don't play melee blasters and melee blasters don't take damage auras because they already have enough damage and they don't want to deal with re-toggling when they get mezzed. Adding a pitiful amount of damage to a toggle sustain is not a buff. It is unnecessary in the first place.

I take them because it's damage that keeps ticking while I'm attacking, and it's a place to put a damage set.

 

The changes here aren't adding damage to a toggle sustain, they are adding sustain to a damage toggle, which removes the option to slot a damage set while slotting for sustain.  It also replaces the unique mechanic of FoT with a Cauterizing Aura clone.  The only upside is that it would prevent detoggling.

[Moonlighter]

41 minutes ago, Dispari said:

Getting a weird bug on my newly made archery/nin blaster. While Shinobi is toggled on she frequently gets interrupted by the present opening animation out of nowhere, which roots her in place. It only happens while Shinobi is on. It was happening every time I trained up at Ms Liberty. Other people saw me opening presents so it wasn't just on my end.

And while I'm at it I also support giving Shinobi a move speed component. It's thematic and move buffs are harmless.

 

I am seeing the gift opening animation as I run around as well. A new character, not copied.

 

It feel weird to be using Shinobi and not be faster, as my main is a /Ninjistu melee so I am not a good judge.