Sniper Beta Patch Notes, June 1st 2019

[MechaMarshmallow]

I've been pretty vocal about this on the discord, but I'll put my thoughts here for posterity.

 

While there are many aspects to this snipe change, I think that getting rid of the +22% tohit buff requirement for fastsnipes is good. +22% tohit is a number that is at once easy for players knowledgeable about game mechanics to reach with IOs, but difficult for players who have no interest in the deeper numeric mechanics of the game. Having the base functionality of snipes change based on a value that to a lot of players is under-the-hood is confusing and unintuitive to people who don't already have a firm grasp on how to build characters, not to mention at odds with how no other power in the game is affected in such a distinct manner by your characters numerical values.

 

It also makes certain secondaries far stronger than others, which may have been designed for with blaster secondaries, but support and dominator sets do not feel as though they were well tuned to all benefit equally from the requirement.

 

Unfortunately, slow snipes have always been awful, so I think removing the +22% tohit buff requirement from fast snipes in the manner proposed in the patch notes feels like a fair compromise between usability and maintaining their thematic 'snipe' status. Some people in this thread have proposed alternate methods for 'activating' fast snipe than having it permanently on, and I don't have a problem with those ideas either - making the fast snipe work more like assassins strike or street justice in that it functions on a combo system would feel more intuitive and in-line with other things in the game than having to build for a statistical threshold for the ability to be useful.

 

As far as the range, cooldown, and time before 'out of combat' go, these changes seem like they could use tuning. Hopefully beta testing will help show what these values should be if the fast snipe mechanic is implemented as it currently exists in the beta.

 

Something that I think it is important to keep in mind is that while ranged damage has been getting buffed, most ranged damage sets have always had trouble with single target output. Historically, melee has been a lot more potent in single target damage per second, a lot sturdier up close, and melee range is the easiest place to receive buffs from teammates. I don't feel like this is 'a buff too far' - bringing ranged damage a little closer to what scrappers, stalkers and brutes are capable of to a single target right now feels like a good move. AoE is a nice thing to be able to bring a team, but a lot of the content in the game is designed around single, difficult enemies. A more accessible fast snipe will help blasters who aren't fire or ice feel more viable in those situations.

[Arkterusss]

I've been pretty vocal about this on the discord, but I'll put my thoughts here for posterity.

 

While there are many aspects to this snipe change, I think that getting rid of the +22% tohit buff requirement for fastsnipes is good. +22% tohit is a number that is at once easy for players knowledgeable about game mechanics to reach with IOs, but difficult for players who have no interest in the deeper numeric mechanics of the game. H

 

Can we just have 3-slotted Defensive powers give 45% defense because players who have ni interest in the deeper numeric mehcanics of the game can't get there?  Sounds good to me, let's do it!

[MechaMarshmallow]

I've been pretty vocal about this on the discord, but I'll put my thoughts here for posterity.

 

While there are many aspects to this snipe change, I think that getting rid of the +22% tohit buff requirement for fastsnipes is good. +22% tohit is a number that is at once easy for players knowledgeable about game mechanics to reach with IOs, but difficult for players who have no interest in the deeper numeric mechanics of the game. H

 

Can we just have 3-slotted Defensive powers give 45% defense because players who have ni interest in the deeper numeric mehcanics of the game can't get there?  Sounds good to me, let's do it!

 

There's a big difference between the defense softcap, something that people without an interest in the deeper mechanics of the game may not even know about if they reached it because it's not something you'd notice as divergent from the normal functioning of the game, and fast snipes.

 

Fast snipes make an ability act completely differently, and in a way that is actually useful in combat. Fiddling with IOs is, for a lot of sets, a requirement to make these abilities function in a manner that is useful and powerful, and acts very differently to how they do 'out of the box'.

 

Defense is just a number that makes you harder to hit as you get more of it. No one needs 45% defense to make one of their powers usable. It's a totally different situation.

[Tater Todd]

I echo what some others have mentioned about LRM Rocket.  I would love to see some changes with this power too. I know it's not a true Snipe but it functions somewhat like one and the power is dated and needs some reworking.

 

So here's my proposal:

• Every blaster primary attack has a small chance (5 or 10%, whatever is balanced) of putting a "fast snipe" mode on the character that lights up the fast snipe indicator for a few seconds and gives you a short window of availability for it.
   
  
• The more global +ToHit buff you have, the greater this percentage becomes, scaling all the way up to 100% chance at 22% to-hit.
  

This has the advantage of not being such a huge buff at the base levels, while still allowing people who don't build for perma-snipe to have more frequent access to it. It gives to team buffs, taking powers like Tactics, and +ToHit IOs even if you're not near the magic number. It doesn't invalidate the perma-snipe builds that people have been making over the last month. And it doesn't make it seem like /Devices is getting the short end of the stick.

 

An alternative I'd suggest: A flat damage boost for snipes that scales on +ToHit. That allows sets which currently benefit from frequent or permanent fast-snipe (Looking at you, Devices) to keep their edge without needing to introduce RNG.

 

I agree, this will still give certain sets like /Devices it's same appeal but will also not punish non /Devices players or players who invested heavily into ToHit.

 

I play a fortunata primarily; anecdotally speaking I can say there have been multiple people ingame at level 50 who are confused about why their snipe power changes behavior while I'm on the team giving them a bunch of tohit buffing via TT:Leadership and Mind Link.  And then are really happy that it became instant and start using it as often as they can.  Many others just don't have their snipes, most likely because it was an "almost always skip" power back on Live for a lot of folks and the fact that fast snipe exists seems not to be widely known.  I'm not going to say that these specific changes are the best idea, but I do think it does address those particular flaws.

 

More importantly in my opinion, it puts another attack in the hands of a lot of sets that don't have complete attack chains without taking powers from elsewhere or getting extremely high recharge from IO builds.  The traditional model of the ranged attack sets had 3 "standard" single targeted attacks, while the traditional model of the melee attack set had 4 - frequently the 4th being an extremely hard-hitting power.  Changing sniper attacks to be a 'tier 4' type of blast for everyone is a valid - if not obvious - means to bring some additional parity between ranged and melee classes.  I think any veteran COH player with two eyes and a brain can recognize why that parity is badly needed.

 

I understand people are concerned about their particular builds and their particular characters, but I'm also sure there will be ways you can incorporate and improve on this change with your knowledge and talents.  Getting tactics to buffed tohit rates for fast sniping imposes an endurance, slot, and powers tax on your build - what can you accomplish by moving those things elsewhere?  It may well end up being superior for your IO build.  And it definitely will be superior for the players who do not want to play with IO builds, or just aren't very good at them.  One of the Live team's ideals was not to balance around the end-game, highest tier of potential character builds and to keep the game accessible and fun at all stages.

 

I echo this.  Snipes were awful in most situations before the ToHit change and to be perfectly honest the ToHit change strongly seemed as a temporary Band-aid until the Devs cooked up a way to buff Snipes or make them universally useful.  This change isn't a reach and it was needed to help bring thing up to current speed.  Like many others have stated it felt like you were being punished for playing a Blaster most of the time back in the day compared to melee. 

[Novacat]

While I don't disagree with wanting to improve the snipes a bit, it's the execution I believe folks are having trouble with. Well that's why it's being *tested* right? The slow snipe with higher damage out of combat part, that's pretty cool. The extensive fast-snipe changes though seem to be where people are having a hiccup.

For me it's the range loss more than anything: It's a powerful attack for its animation but my snipe is gone and it doesn't come back until long after a battle ends. And if I put in a certain IO for snipes it wouldn't be improved - it would be gone forever!

 

Here would be my alternative method - not sure if it would be doable the way I describe it though:

 

- If you've made an attack or taken damage in the last 2 seconds, your snipe's in combat mode. That's it.

- Combat Mode: Interrupt Time 1s, with a flat 0.05s removed from the final post-enhancement timer per 1% ToHit.

  Base Damage scale Standard, Range 120ft

- Out of Combat: Interrupt Time 2.5s with a flat 0.1s removed from the final value per 1% ToHit.

  Base Damage scale 4.25, Range 160ft

- Momentary clicks such as Aim and Build-Up grant only 1/2 of their to-hit value to interrupt-removal

- Targeting Drone: adds half its To-Hit as a damage % bonus to Snipes

- The Fast Snipes IO reduces final Interrupt time by 0.5s and adds some other fun bonus to round it out. Maybe chance of going unnoticed, or a chance of Splorching through the first target for partial damage into a second unlucky bastard?

[Nic Mercy]

I like the proposed snipe changes to be honest. Especially on my Dom who is pigeonholed into psi APP for link minds just to hit the to-hit requirement. That not to mention being pigeonholed into Tactics and whatever you take as the prereq on all but device Blasters.

 

This change is great and I personally don't get the outrage. I am especially confused by those complaining about "investing so much to get 22% to hit". So what? You'll respec out of all those powers and enhancements and optimize your build in other ways! This is not a nerf by any stretch of the imagination. Any loss from the slightly longer recharge time can be made up for with more global recharge... which you'll almost certainly be able to get because you just freed up all those slots in Tactics.

[Arkterusss]

I guess NOT getting to the Defense cap as a SR Tanker isn't required to play that character efficiently end game.

[Blaze]

I just got my Fire/Fire Blaster on Live to 50 recently and have only been enjoying instasnipes for a short time.  After rebuilding my character on test (with some build improvements I can't do on Live yet), I really found the snipe changes made the mechanic more intuitive and in general fights didn't really change much at all with how I was playing on Live.  Probably the best change is that the reticle for instasnipe always works when it was wonky if you were just borderline on your tohit values before.  The slow snipe also still gives a range bonus so I can still start a fight with Blazing Bolt with the extra range.

 

My only complaint at this point would be about the range reduction (maybe 100 for fast instead of 80), but otherwise in play it feels more intuitive than before and will greatly benefit my lower level ranged characters while leveling by giving them a strong attack without the power/slot/IO tax.

[Arkterusss]

I've been pretty vocal about this on the discord, but I'll put my thoughts here for posterity.

 

While there are many aspects to this snipe change, I think that getting rid of the +22% tohit buff requirement for fastsnipes is good. +22% tohit is a number that is at once easy for players knowledgeable about game mechanics to reach with IOs, but difficult for players who have no interest in the deeper numeric mechanics of the game. H

 

Can we just have 3-slotted Defensive powers give 45% defense because players who have ni interest in the deeper numeric mehcanics of the game can't get there?  Sounds good to me, let's do it!

 

There's a big difference between the defense softcap, something that people without an interest in the deeper mechanics of the game may not even know about if they reached it because it's not something you'd notice as divergent from the normal functioning of the game, and fast snipes.

 

Fast snipes make an ability act completely differently, and in a way that is actually useful in combat. Fiddling with IOs is, for a lot of sets, a requirement to make these abilities function in a manner that is useful and powerful, and acts very differently to how they do 'out of the box'.

 

Defense is just a number that makes you harder to hit as you get more of it. No one needs 45% defense to make one of their powers usable. It's a totally different situation.

 

Id say sitting at the base values Defense gives you and face tanking mobs versus the soft-cap is a pretty noticeable divergent, yes. 

[Kala]

It seems like the problem this change is trying to solve is that slow snipes aren't great, and the mechanic for getting them to fast snipes is a little strange and non-obvious. I think this is a reasonable thing to try to address.

 

However, fast snipes are fine and enjoyable for players as they are. They work well and aren't overperforming, and the reason this is getting so much pushback is because they are being nerfed as a side effect of buffing something else. But if fast snipes aren't overperforming, there's no reason to nerf them.

 

A more direct solution would just be to buff slow snipes without touching existing fast snipes. One obvious way of doing this is just removing slow snipes from the game and making all snipes fast always, and then repurposing the To-Hit requirement to do something else instead, maybe on a sliding scale to make it less dependent on high-level buildcraft.

 

Another drop-in solution would just be to make the speed scale down with your To-Hit rather than being a hard breakpoint, with an extra jump upon hitting the threshold. That way, the goal of crafting builds to meet that threshold remains, but snipes become more broadly usable for builds that don't meet it.

 

The use of slow snipes as a high damage combat opener is an interesting idea, and I do think it's worth considering, but I also think that's a separate change that should be considered on its own merits separately from solving the problem of "snipes aren't very good if you don't have enough To-Hit".

[Pzn]

I like the proposed snipe changes to be honest. Especially on my Dom who is pigeonholed into psi APP for link minds just to hit the to-hit requirement. That not to mention being pigeonholed into Tactics and whatever you take as the prereq on all but device Blasters.

 

This change is great and I personally don't get the outrage. I am especially confused by those complaining about "investing so much to get 22% to hit". So what? You'll respec out of all those powers and enhancements and optimize your build in other ways! This is not a nerf by any stretch of the imagination. Any loss from the slightly longer recharge time can be made up for with more global recharge... which you'll almost certainly be able to get because you just freed up all those slots in Tactics.

Did you see the part where dom snipe damage was nerfed dramatically?

[MechaMarshmallow]

Id say sitting at the base values Defense gives you and face tanking mobs versus the soft-cap is a pretty noticeable divergent, yes.

 

But sitting at 45% defense vs 44% defense doesn't make a very noticeable difference. Armour sets that are built to focus on defense are often possible, if not easy, to softcap with SO enhancements alone. Armour sets that are not built to focus on defense have other benefits to make up for it and bring the survivability in line with defense sets.

 

Meanwhile, sitting at +21% and +22% tohit is night and day for single target damage. Secondaries that are built to provide +tohit reach this incredible increase in damage and usability with ease, while the secondaries not built to buff tohit do not tend to have any other benefits to make up for the loss of the fast snipe. Support sets were simply not built with the +22% cut-off in mind.

 

If you roll a corrupter, the way in which your primary snipe ability functions at a base level will be fundamentally changed by whether the support set you pick gives you +tohit or not. This isn't balanced because the devs simply never balanced the sets for it. That a /traps corrupter needs to pay a steep power/IO tax to reach the same damage levels as a /time corrupter because of this detail feels like nothing other than the unintended side effect of a change that the original devs only had half-finished before the game was shut down.

[AngriestGhost]

 

As stated before, you can have it at level 22 the moment you can slot SO's into Tactics and bought Kismet. No IO build required.

 

The only change needed is to make it more intuitively accessible without undermining people who already invested time into building for 22%. Buff Aim, make it last for 20 seconds or so. Make the ToHit buff on Domination last the entire duration.

 

Giving doms a long lasting to hit buff may solve the snipe problem, but it opens up a whole other can of worms. 

[Arkterusss]

Id say sitting at the base values Defense gives you and face tanking mobs versus the soft-cap is a pretty noticeable divergent, yes.

 

But sitting at 45% defense vs 44% defense doesn't make a very noticeable difference. Armour sets that are built to focus on defense are often possible, if not easy, to softcap with SO enhancements alone. Armour sets that are not built to focus on defense have other benefits to make up for it and bring the survivability in line with defense sets.

 

Meanwhile, sitting at +21% and +22% tohit is night and day for single target damage. Secondaries that are built to provide +tohit reach this incredible increase in damage and usability with ease, while the secondaries not built to buff tohit do not tend to have any other benefits to make up for the loss of the fast snipe. Support sets were simply not built with the +22% cut-off in mind.

 

If you roll a corrupter, the way in which your primary snipe ability functions at a base level will be fundamentally changed by whether the support set you pick gives you +tohit or not. This isn't balanced because the devs simply never balanced the sets for it. That a /traps corrupter needs to pay a steep power/IO tax to reach the same damage levels as a /time corrupter because of this detail feels like nothing other than the unintended side effect of a change that the original devs only had half-finished before the game was shut down.

 

1 Kismet + Tactics isn't easy?

Wow, every set can get those too!

Pretty neat, too. Shame I can't get to Defense soft cap in 4 slots. 

[Golden Azrael]

 

 

Something that I think it is important to keep in mind is that while ranged damage has been getting buffed, most ranged damage sets have always had trouble with single target output. Historically, melee has been a lot more potent in single target damage per second, a lot sturdier up close, and melee range is the easiest place to receive buffs from teammates. I don't feel like this is 'a buff too far' - bringing ranged damage a little closer to what scrappers, stalkers and brutes are capable of to a single target right now feels like a good move. AoE is a nice thing to be able to bring a team, but a lot of the content in the game is designed around single, difficult enemies. A more accessible fast snipe will help blasters who aren't fire or ice feel more viable in those situations.

 

I always felt blasters were behind brutes and scrappers.  I can see the appeal of the latter.  Most of the damage of ranged but without the glass jaw penalties.  Cake and eat it territory.  By the mid 30s, I gave up on blasters as they were way too brittle and their damage chain was far behind.  Ie.  Single target specialists without the damage chain to back it up.  Or AoE damage which played into a hospital near you.  You just had any toggles slapped off you.  Stunned.  Knocked to the ground and 1 or two shotted while you had your cape pulled over your head and your mask taken off and thrown off into the pier.  IT always felt a little humiliating. 

 

Where as a scrapper could operate at peak 'most of damage' in a big juicy mob or go toe to toe with a big main single target.  Blasters felt miles behind from about 35-50.  Sure, you could snipe...but by the time you did?  Time to leg it.

 

Enter: issue 24.  The last developer issue from Paragon Studios.

 

I'd be itching to try insta-snipe for all those years since shutdown. 

 

I'd like to place on record my thanks to Leandro and the Score team for safe guarding the CoH legacy.  We're here because of that.

 

Now.  Snipe.  I've some sympathy with the view of the post above that COH's gameplay should NOT be behind a 'pay wall' of IO nerd-spec.  The game was TO, DO or SO and accessible from most shops or contacts.  Without going into mids and using arcane science or maths to get something working.

 

However.  I've been testing i24's 'insta-snipe' for a couple of weeks now.  It feels completely unbroken.  I'm running a Leadership pool of Assault/Tactics.  The latter 3 slotted.  (I'm an En/En blaster by the way...)  I can use AIM, BU or even Tactics with an AIM inspire to bring forth the insta-snipe.  I can even select Power Boost to get that insta-snipe.  That's 4 mainstream ways of getting the insta-snipe up.  Hardly behind an IO wall.  Sure, I don't have the IO (Unique IO in there yet or the 6 slot) to have it perma-on call....but I can have it mostly on call for the attack chain if I space Aim/BUILD up/Power Boost (I appreciante not all Blaster types have PB...but that's a perk of picking energy?) and AIM inspires.  It means I can use the snipe 4 times in a minute of combat or more?  My recharge is on about 6 seconds.  The range is perfect.  You are a snipe specialist after all.  Before i24?  I wasn't using Snipe at all.  Too slow.  Too Clunky.  Not part of the attack chain.  Easily 'nudged' in battle.  It was 4 way disaster.

 

The range and timing is 'just in' (pun intended...) time.  Combat has been a revelation.  The recharge with a couple of SOs in snipe and especially with Hasten(!) is spot on.  You get the snipe 'jusssssssst' when you need it.  I can insta-bone smasher, nova-snipe...snipe exploding blaster.  The combations are endless.  The range is fantastic, you can get those straggler runners with ease.  That's PART of the fun.

 

I can even use snipe 'head to head' when I have to mobs in my face melee style (the big weakness of blasters...) as part of Bone Smasher to give an extra one-two punch to those tough oponents like Freak Tanks.

 

It plays like a dream.  What could go wrong?  I was thinking.  This is just TOO GOOD to be TRUE.

 

What happens?  SCORE, who have barely put a foot wrong since launch.  Drop what 'feels' like a nerf.  It had to happen, right?

 

Yes.  I've been on the test server.

 

I've played it.  And, like all great ideas in need of a solution to a problem that didn't exist...it feels...

 

...like a back ward step.  I'm so disappointed.  Somehow, someway this doesn't 'feel' as good no matter what the numbers say. 

 

So we're back to the 'spirit' of the snipe that sucked so bad.  A big dollop of damage up front and wait....and wait...and wait.  That's what made it suck so bad in the 1st place.

 

It activates 'faster' so you can wait 'longer' for it to activate again.  Huh?!  That feels like yayy....2 secs to 'pull' and ....boo.....3 seconds longer (an eon in blaster terms...try adding 3 seconds onto any scrapper melee power...and you'll hear the howls in front  of the full moon...) and it feels like an eternity.

 

I even went back to the live server to check.  'FEELS' better to call on AIM/BUILD UP/POWER BOOST upon command.  It adds a bit of sophistication to the gameplay.  For en/en blasters.  You make a choice with powers.  I gave up on stun/power push to get Leaderships Assault and Tactics.  (Again, these are mainstream game options, no IOs here...)  And if you slot Tactics you get an inspire or two away from having it on call in addition.  It helps your Build up.  It feels like you're building into a snipe specialist.  You have the choice.

 

And I came back to the test server.  It feels off.  By a lot.

 

The Solutions in need of a problem.

 

1. Recharge time of 9 seconds.

 

It takes ages.  Instead of my former 'one-two' punch with snipe in close melee?  I'm waiting.  And waiting.  ANNNND waiting.  With AIM/BUILD UP/POWER BOOST.  It's insta-cast after you click on those.  And my snipe is up after 6 seconds. IN close quarter mob fighting that's great.  But 9?  Why?  It's a massive step backwards.

 

2.  Range.

 

This is another gaping step backwards.  Runners?  Forget it.  You now have to 'get into combat range' which use to be a real pet peeve of mine re: Power Burst which had an insanely short blast range.  It's been a joy to use the range of Snipe and the increased range of Power Burst as a double one-two punch.  The 'big' (I'll take your word for it) up front hit out of combat range 'is ok.'  But it doesn't compensate for step back in range or recharge.  At all.  Or having the autonomy taken away from AIM/BU/PBoost or popping an AIM inspire.  (I do like the 'SNIPE' lettering to let you now you've done a big dollop of damage.  That was cool.  As a graphical effect to let you know.)

 

3.  Snipe circle in combat range.

 

This feels like it's in the spirit of the CoH game.  It's accessible to all.  (Should it be accessible to Doms and Defs?  They aren't snipe specialists?  Blasters are.  I say this as a vehement Dom' player.  The latter of which I'll come to.)  You have the same problem Power Burst ran into with it's overly short range.  You have to really creep up in melee range to use it.  It feels really awkward to use.  The two seconds faster activation...doesn't compensate for this irritating tip-toeing into an arbitrary melee range.

 

Before?  You're a snipe specialist.  You can hit them close or far away.  No fussing.  No mechanic to make that so.  It was far simpler.

 

Solution.

 

1.  Drop kick the range kludge.  It's fussy.  It's a step backwards.  Am I in yet?  (Just in...)  Am I in yet?  (Just in...on...right there...there you are...)  Meanwhile, Death Mage is saying hello....and your runner got away.

 

2.  Drop kick the eon-long recharge.  Even with Hasten it takes forever now in combat (melee combat, you know, the area we're far behind scrappers and melee characters?) to activate.  Meanwhile, the death mage is whooping your ass.  I know, I tried it in P. Isle.

 

Your big hitter takes waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long.  No.  No.  Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

 

3. Re-establish the link to AIM/BUILD UP/Power Boost.  It played better.  In my view.

 

Conclusion.

 

I'm all for the democratisation of COH.  I didn't like the incarnate system.  I didn't like the fact you had to pay 100s of millions for purple IOS.  I would rather you go to Statesman or Ms.Liberty and buy them from her and him or others at a steep premium rather than paying inflated market prices. 

 

So, should all snipes have the auto circle in melee combat?  Erm.  It sounds like a great idea.  In practice.  It plays terrible.  It's slower and has terrible range.  It mashes up the attack chain again.  Which means you're waiting for your big hitter and using the powder puff attacks on your way to death.  YOu've lost the upper hand.  It felt like the blaster, with i24 had finally drawn close to scrappers and were almost above water.  We're now below water again.  It's too slow into an attack chain.

 

How do I know?

 

You know those snipers in Founders?  I spent a whole 2 levels doing them.  Just them for my two levels.  How do I know?  I spent 2 levels mobbing in Bricks doing Freak tanks.  (Guess, I'm a snipe obsessive.  I was that captivated by teh new gameplay.)  The current system plays like butter.n  Smooth.  The test's version is clunky.  Need to change the recharge back.  Need to drop the range limitation.  Re-instate the AIM boosters to bring on the insta-snipe.  They make your snipe 'more efficient.'  Now you can't earn that extra functionality.  It's given to everybody.  And it doesn't play as good.

 

As for Dominators.  They have crap damage.  Let's be honest.  There's no way the 'thrown together' sets of some of the Doms were play tested that well.  But there are some good ones.  Elec and Stone come to mind.  Pitch perfect.  So.  The snipe?  Make it insta cast with Domination mode and boost the damage while in Domi' mode whilst you're at it.  An elec/elec domi has great control but it's tap...tap....tap....tap....tap...it's torture up to L21.

 

This is an area where I prefer issue '24' to be honest.  It sounds like a great idea.  But in practice..?

 

ERm.. IF you want to keep the ring of doom...

 

1. 3 slot 'to hits' in snipe to insta it.

 

That's the most elegant solution.  Keep the range.  Keep the recharge.  There you go.  3 SOs of 'to hit' SOs (nobody uses them now, right?) in snipe to get your auto-snipe on.  That's as mainstream as it can be.

 

This in and out of combat range is a bit mushy.  A bigger hit of damage for your 1st strike our of melee range is ok.  Fine.  A bonus first hit because, like stalkers?  You catch a mob off guard.  And yes.  We can keep the loveable "SNIPE" words above teh 1st first victim's heads.

 

Conclusion.

 

The real culprits are the recharge time and range.  They make combat kludgy and fussy.  Too things blasters can do well without in the 3 seconds it takes us to die.  9 vs 6.  Massive difference.  It's a nerf.  I expected better of Homecoming.  And this, in a game where you have the P2W vendor to control your xp rates.  The latter is quality of life and choice.  This feels like SCORE'S unblemished track record takes a step backwards into 'not quality of life combat.'

 

I know it's beta.  But come on.  Play it.  Test it.  Try it.  Go back and forth between the servers.

 

Keep the snipe 'SNIPE' word for the big damage 1st hit.  Auto it WITH to hits in the snipe.  (So you can choose, in a a very non-IO way to boost your snipe for damage x3 and to hit x3 to bring auto snipe online.  That way you don't need to slot for acc or for end because most blasters have a new end red' or end mod power.)  6 sec recharge with hasten to keep it kicking ass is the way to go.  Drop the recharge thing.  Drop the range limit.  Both poor.  1 step forwards.  2 massive steps back.

 

Azrael.

 

PS.  Been having so much fun with it as is.  I like using Aim/BU UP to activate it.  PBoost as well.  I never used it before live, SNIPE.  Because it was slow before and during an attack chain.  Now it seems to be going back to that.  No thank you. 

[Auroxis]

 

As stated before, you can have it at level 22 the moment you can slot SO's into Tactics and bought Kismet. No IO build required.

 

The only change needed is to make it more intuitively accessible without undermining people who already invested time into building for 22%. Buff Aim, make it last for 20 seconds or so. Make the ToHit buff on Domination last the entire duration.

 

Giving doms a long lasting to hit buff may solve the snipe problem, but it opens up a whole other can of worms.

 

If it becomes a problem in PvP just lower the number. Doms really don't need a lot of extra ToHit to reach insta-snipe (hence why Link Minds is enough).

[Neogumbercules]

Just got a chance to actually play with it. My first experience upon trying to activate the snipe in combat "Out of range!"

 

And my feedback...

 

This feels wrong.

 

So I'll reiterate what I said before. I love the idea of making instant snipe automatic but I really dislike the range reduction, and I dislike that /Devices loses a big part of what made it special.

[MechaMarshmallow]

1 Kismet + Tactics isn't easy?

Wow, every set can get those too!

Pretty neat, too. Shame I can't get to Defense soft cap in 4 slots.

 

It's easy for us players who know about the mechanics, have the inf, understand when 'tohit' is mislabelled as 'accuracy', and so on. It's not as easy for players who don't have that knowledge, and not interacting with that complexity shouldn't lock people out of having a usable snipe.

 

It's also a tax on sets that don't inherently bring some +tohit to the table. It arbitrarily gives those sets more power/enhancement slots because they don't need to spend them on kismet, tactics and slotting tactics. Further, they need to spend endurance running tactics.

 

None of this was accounted for in the design for the sets other than blaster secondaries. These issues should be obvious, and have nothing to do with how easy or difficult it is to build for the defense softcap.

[Tater Todd]

Id say sitting at the base values Defense gives you and face tanking mobs versus the soft-cap is a pretty noticeable divergent, yes.

 

But sitting at 45% defense vs 44% defense doesn't make a very noticeable difference. Armour sets that are built to focus on defense are often possible, if not easy, to softcap with SO enhancements alone. Armour sets that are not built to focus on defense have other benefits to make up for it and bring the survivability in line with defense sets.

 

Meanwhile, sitting at +21% and +22% tohit is night and day for single target damage. Secondaries that are built to provide +tohit reach this incredible increase in damage and usability with ease, while the secondaries not built to buff tohit do not tend to have any other benefits to make up for the loss of the fast snipe. Support sets were simply not built with the +22% cut-off in mind.

 

If you roll a corrupter, the way in which your primary snipe ability functions at a base level will be fundamentally changed by whether the support set you pick gives you +tohit or not. This isn't balanced because the devs simply never balanced the sets for it. That a /traps corrupter needs to pay a steep power/IO tax to reach the same damage levels as a /time corrupter because of this detail feels like nothing other than the unintended side effect of a change that the original devs only had half-finished before the game was shut down.

 

1 Kismet + Tactics isn't easy?

Wow, every set can get those too!

Pretty neat, too. Shame I can't get to Defense soft cap in 4 slots.

 

Wouldn't this force Blasters and Dominators to only pick Maneuvers, Tactics, Hide or a Defense armor Epic power?  With this change more options are available I would think.  After this change Blasters, Corrs, Defenders and Dominators can choose Assault or a Resistance Epic Armor power.  Currently on live you have to plan your entire build around making one power work the way it should.

[Arkterusss]

1 Kismet + Tactics isn't easy?

Wow, every set can get those too!

Pretty neat, too. Shame I can't get to Defense soft cap in 4 slots.

 

It's easy for us players who know about the mechanics, have the inf, understand when 'tohit' is mislabelled as 'accuracy', and so on. It's not as easy for players who don't have that knowledge, and not interacting with that complexity shouldn't lock people out of having a usable snipe.

 

It's also a tax on sets that don't inherently bring some +tohit to the table. It arbitrarily gives those sets more power/enhancement slots because they don't need to spend them on kismet, tactics and slotting tactics. Further, they need to spend endurance running tactics.

 

None of this was accounted for in the design for the sets other than blaster secondaries. These issues should be obvious, and have nothing to do with how easy or difficult it is to build for the defense softcap.

 

Yeah man, it's a crazy idea that people who might not understand things, like, you know.  Ask bout it.  Or something. And then someone tells them, and so they learn something new.  And then they tell someone else who didn't know about it.  That's crazy. I guess I just ALWAYS knew to slot a Kismet and take Tactics, just inherently. I was never told about it, or asked about it. I just knew it.  At all times.

 

And it's almost like...I dunno. Taking certain powersets that give you something but take away something else is...I dunno.  It's like a uh. What do you call it?  Oh, like a tradeoff or something!  You know, like if I take /Devices. SO, like. I don't get build-up like most other 2ndaries. But oh hey, look, I get this cool thing called Targetting Drone. That's neat.  Oh hey, I don't have to do this whole Kismet/Tactics things at all now!  I guess that's a pretty good trade-off!  Neat! 

 

But yeah, that whole tax thing is a real big oof.  You're right, I should have just an easy enough time capping my S/L defense on a Regen Scrapper as I should on a SR Scrapper!  Without having to pay all this tax!  That doesnt make sense!

[Arkterusss]

Id say sitting at the base values Defense gives you and face tanking mobs versus the soft-cap is a pretty noticeable divergent, yes.

 

But sitting at 45% defense vs 44% defense doesn't make a very noticeable difference. Armour sets that are built to focus on defense are often possible, if not easy, to softcap with SO enhancements alone. Armour sets that are not built to focus on defense have other benefits to make up for it and bring the survivability in line with defense sets.

 

Meanwhile, sitting at +21% and +22% tohit is night and day for single target damage. Secondaries that are built to provide +tohit reach this incredible increase in damage and usability with ease, while the secondaries not built to buff tohit do not tend to have any other benefits to make up for the loss of the fast snipe. Support sets were simply not built with the +22% cut-off in mind.

 

If you roll a corrupter, the way in which your primary snipe ability functions at a base level will be fundamentally changed by whether the support set you pick gives you +tohit or not. This isn't balanced because the devs simply never balanced the sets for it. That a /traps corrupter needs to pay a steep power/IO tax to reach the same damage levels as a /time corrupter because of this detail feels like nothing other than the unintended side effect of a change that the original devs only had half-finished before the game was shut down.

 

1 Kismet + Tactics isn't easy?

Wow, every set can get those too!

Pretty neat, too. Shame I can't get to Defense soft cap in 4 slots.

 

Wouldn't this force Blasters and Dominators to only pick Maneuvers, Tactics, Hide or a Defense armor Epic power?  With this change more options are available I would think.  After this change Blasters, Corrs, Defenders and Dominators can choose Assault or a Resistance Epic Armor power.  Currently on live you have to plan your entire build around making one power work the way it should.

 

No, it depends on their power choices, too.  Oh and also if they want a perma-snipe, outside of BU/AIm.  If they do, then that's an easy way of getting it, but not required.

If they don't want to take it, then...they can certainly pick whatever powers they want.  That's the cool thing about the game; having choices on how you want to proceed. 

 

It surely will make Devices even less desireable then before though.

[Zherphi]

Also weighing in, I normally don't post thing like this so I'll keep it short. This snipe change not only feels bad, it was honestly a waste of dev time. There are a lot more blaring issues that could have been addressed and quite frankly the snipes felt fine before. I know it's incredibly selfish to post this sort of thing on a free private server but if I don't speak up I don't think anyone else will for me.

[ZeeHero]

Decent change. I like most of it. Lets be honest, most people already built for instant snipe, this isnt going to change a whole lot.

[MechaMarshmallow]

Yeah man, it's a crazy idea that people who might not understand things, like, you know.  Ask bout it.  Or something. And then someone tells them, and so they learn something new.  And then they tell someone else who didn't know about it.  That's crazy. I guess I just ALWAYS knew to slot a Kismet and take Tactics, just inherently. I was never told about it, or asked about it. I just knew it.  At all times.

 

And it's almost like...I dunno. Taking certain powersets that give you something but take away something else is...I dunno.  It's like a uh. What do you call it?  Oh, like a tradeoff or something!  You know, like if I take /Devices. SO, like. I don't get build-up like most other 2ndaries. But oh hey, look, I get this cool thing called Targetting Drone. That's neat.  Oh hey, I don't have to do this whole Kismet/Tactics things at all now!  I guess that's a pretty good trade-off!  Neat! 

 

But yeah, that whole tax thing is a real big oof.  You're right, I should have just an easy enough time capping my S/L defense on a Regen Scrapper as I should on a SR Scrapper!  Without having to pay all this tax!  That doesnt make sense!

 

You seem to be missing the part where it's a tradeoff that clearly wasn't accounted for in the set design, because other than blaster secondaries, all of the sets that are paired with blasts were designed and balanced before the i24 snipe change was introduced.

 

Trade-offs can be good, but they are not inherently good, and this is a trade-off that was not accounted for when the support sets were initially created and balanced. That some support sets are more offensively powerful due to having an easier time doing damage because of how instant snipes work in i24 is not an intended feature, it is a consequence of the snipe change that should be addressed.

 

As for complexity, if a core aspect of a power needs to be explained from one player to another because of poor documentation and numbers not being clearly visible, that's a problem. The game routinely mixing up its terms for accuracy and tohit is only making this worse.

[tatter]

As an AR/Dev main designed specifically around long range shots I am very sad. I don't PvP at all and so that IO set means nothing to me. I just like to be able to shoot runners and now I can get one and then I wait and wait until I am considered out of combat and my range returns. This change just trashed multiple millions of influence in IO sets I did have and pretty much screwed up my entire character concept. I played with the interruptable snipe on live and that was far better than this range loss. If you have to change snipe, then go back to the no fast snipe mode.