Sniper Beta Patch Notes, June 2nd 2019

[Mezmera]

I don’t like to announce things because it always comes back to bite me one way or another, but Dominator assault sets will get attention, as will Assault Rifle, Dual Pistols and Psi Blast. I don’t have full details yet, though. Honestly, biggest challenge is doing anything that is not seen as a nerf and results in hate.

 

Reduce recharge time for a more fluid attack change somewhere? PPM Nerf.

Redice cast time for increased DPA? PvP nerf.

Increase recharge for increased damage? Rotation nerf.

 

Regardless what is done, someone will hate an aspect of it. But i want all dominators to be on similar balanced footing, especially because it’s near impossible to implement the new assault sets that I have on my queue when existing ones are all over the place.

 

I appreciate the response!  To be fair I'm not asking to be king dpser that's what blasters were meant to be and kind of are from a plug and play stand point but I think some brutes and scrappers have turned out being far better.  I've had a lot of fun with my new Archery/Trick Arrow blaster with all of these new tools to play with.  I was just happy to get to play my dominator again despite not knowing how great snipe was until a few weeks in, then its getting nerfed so harshly for doms before any performance enhancements come through. 

 

Every power in a dominators secondary had a longer recharge in relation to blasters (their closer cousins) but to make up for that the thinking was that those powers would do more damage and we don't have access to lots of the good aoes.  The problem was that mostly that didn't ring true with the exception of the snipe which no one hardly used because dominators didn't have the time for the interrupt on snipe when they were controlling things. 

 

All day every day give me slower charging attacks that actually hit hard, I can bide my time doing what I'm primarily supposed to be doing anyways.  That's why the change in concept of the snipe now seemed so counter intuitive to the ATs design originally.  I get that it hits hard and I love it.  Let the blasters have their nukes for every mob, is it inconceivable for a dominator to have one strong attack that hits a single target hard?  Even with the addition of to-hit it comes off very harsh, maybe some middle ground, not back up to 3.56 but not 2.78.  Recharge time I could care less about, the longer recharge that buys me more damage the better, so long as it's not more than the 20 seconds it started with. 

 

Dominators truly are the unicorns of this game.  You get a good perma dom and they can do wonderous things, so far as controls go.  I get why it's gonna be hard to balance them out because with IOs the task is just too difficult.  That's the reason for apprehension of nerfing here, buffing there.  Where does it end?

 

As for the new assault set I can't wait to see it!  Really hope it involves whips since Masterminds have already beaten us to it and it would seem whips and dominators would go hand in hand.     

[Mezmera]

Ah, yeah.  If they're adding the buff based on to hit chance, that'll help out with Sniper Blast. 

 

Setting aside the proc nerf, I think that buff makes Power Burst (and probably Blaze and Explosive Shuriken?)kind of pointless?  It's a longer recharge attack, with worse animation time, shorter range doing less damage than Sniper Blast.  Maybe replace Power Burst with Explosive Blast or Energy Transfer?

 

You do realize in the hero epic power pools we have access to Energy Transfer?  I go with a couple mandatory secondary powers and take ET every time for pve, take it you will love it! 

[Super Homer]

But scorpion shield!!!!

[Mezmera]

But scorpion shield!!!!

 

I knoes I knoes hard choices!

[senseichen]

Maybe after the snipe changes when I don't *need* Link Minds to get my Snipe going, I can try out some of the other Epic pools. :)  Although Psionic Tornado is also a great FF proc-er.

 

Thanks for the note, Captain Powerhouse.  I'm glad to hear you're looking at the assault sets.  It wasn't until I saw the Snipe changes that I realized how bland /Energy might be (5 blasts, 2 melee attacks, PBAoE, and Power Boost.)  FWIW, I wouldn't be concerned about the PPM changes from the recharge time, if it weren't also coming on top of a significant damage nerf.  As Mezmera says, the Dominator playstyle seems to want long recharge time, heavier hitting attacks.  Trading damage for recharge is usually a downgrade.

[Tater Todd]

Ah, yeah.  If they're adding the buff based on to hit chance, that'll help out with Sniper Blast. 

 

Setting aside the proc nerf, I think that buff makes Power Burst (and probably Blaze and Explosive Shuriken?)kind of pointless?  It's a longer recharge attack, with worse animation time, shorter range doing less damage than Sniper Blast.  Maybe replace Power Burst with Explosive Blast or Energy Transfer?

 

You do realize in the hero epic power pools we have access to Energy Transfer?  I go with a couple mandatory secondary powers and take ET every time for pve, take it you will love it!

 

I have to thank the Dev team for making the Knockback to Knockdown Set.  I am finally able to make The Gravity/En Dom that I always wanted with Energy Transfer and all...with no knockback to get me kicked form teams!  Woot!  *Gets back to Merit Farming*

[Golden Azrael]

I like knbk.  The more annoying it is, the better.

 

Azrael.

[Golden Azrael]

I don’t like to announce things because it always comes back to bite me one way or another, but Dominator assault sets will get attention, as will Assault Rifle, Dual Pistols and Psi Blast. I don’t have full details yet, though. Honestly, biggest challenge is doing anything that is not seen as a nerf and results in hate.

 

Reduce recharge time for a more fluid attack change somewhere? PPM Nerf.

Redice cast time for increased DPA? PvP nerf.

Increase recharge for increased damage? Rotation nerf.

 

Regardless what is done, someone will hate an aspect of it. But i want all dominators to be on similar balanced footing and I’m not looking to nerf them, especially because it’s near impossible to implement the new assault sets that I have on my queue when existing ones are all over the place.

 

Reducing the charge to how it was is a good idea.  Decreasing the range and increasing the recharge seemed like obvious steps back to me.  The idea of a faster snipe to make it charge longer...to use it...seems counter intuitive to me.  On live, it plays beautifully.  The devs got that right, i24 beta or not.  Putting the range back makes perfect sense (ie.  It's a snipe...you play mostly at range...so chasing after runners seems...kind a....)

 

I can't speak for PVP.  Or want to.  I don't like gameplay where I'm running around playing hide and seek.  I tried CoH pvp.  Never liked it.  It appeals to other players who like that.  I guess.

 

Inreased recharge for damage.  Seemed like a nerf on blasters.  Though I have noted the ojections by Dominators (the final archetype I played on live).  Solution?  Keep the domi recharge as it is (for the increased damage as the domi' damage seems very 'tippy tappy' as is.  So the idea is to hit hard when you 'do' hit.  As it's not just an attack chain there...it's controls AND attack chains.  So, I can see where Domi's are coming from.  For blasters.  I have no mitigation so I have to hit and keep hitting hard.  (As a knbk blaster, the mitigation of knbk is so unreliable that a quick snipe has been transformative. Seriously.  I've done things in Bricks and Founders that I couldn't have done without an 'insta-snipe.'

 

The motivation to make a more varied attack chain from a longer recharge 'may' be a motivation.  But I found that it was counter to that in practice.  I was so used to having snipe 'up' more often without the '3 second' activation and 'hey, the Vamp...nudged me...' hassle that I could...

 

Power Thrust snipe.

Nova snipe.

Exploding Blast snipe.

Power Burst snipe.

Torrent snipe.

Snipe energy punch

Snipe Bonesmasher....

Snipe Power Burst Energy Punch...

 

Any combination.  I could pick and choose.  Instinctually.  I don't have a set attack chain.  I like the variety.  I'm not an IO power build tweaker.  So I don't have a set way of taking down something.  I like a ten pence mix...I might pick a cola bottle this time...or a shrimp next time....  But I like my auto-shrimp.

 

I've been back from test and live a few times.  It may say cast time 1.33 but on test it still feels like there's a slight delay before it triggers.

 

I still miss AIM/BUILD UP and POWER BOOST to activate the auto-snipe mode.  Can't you just leave that in as a manual over ride?  The code is there on live.  Why not leave it in..?

 

For those that want 'auto' let them do that.  For those that want to 'trigger' the snipe themselves?  Let them have that.  For Domi's that want a longer recharge and a heavier snipe?  Leave it as is.  I can understand that.  All that minor damage from your controls (no forklift truck in the elec controls...) and the 'feels' like mediocre damage in your assault set...  The snipe much be like water in hot, sandy place...

 

I've taken Tacitcs on my Domi to boost acc on the controls without having to use loads of slots for double SO acc.  And I've taken Assault to boost the 'so-so' (feels like...) damage.  The snipe feels 'ok'.  Don't feel like a truck to me.  But it's fun to play.  I just x1 +0 my missions.  With SOs I'm now doing better.  I keep that setting so I can baseline by progression of SO slots for damage.  I slot for x1 across powers.  Test.  Then x2 across powers.  Test.  x3 slot across powers.  Test.  So that way.  I can appreciate any boost in damage relative to TOs...DOs...etc.  I don't go from 1 to x3 slots.  As I'll have no appreciation for what's inbetween.

 

Yeah.  Using tactics to get the damage back from the test.  Sure.  I could live with that.

 

Again.  I'll repeat.

 

The trimming of slow snipe is 'thank god.'  Thank you god.  or SCORE.  Or whoever is in charge of trimming that to 2 sec.

I dig the 'SNIPE!'  When it happens.  Fun stuff.

Auto mode democratising insta-snipe is fine 'in principal.'  (I currently have 18 slots in snipe, tactics and aim and build up.  ANd I still don't have an auto-snipe.  It's kinda of ridiculous.  I bought the Kismet IO and guess where I slotted it?  PFF.  It was the ONLY defence power I had.  That sucks.  So when I turn my PFF on.  I have 'perma-auto-insta-snipe...but I can't use it. :P  When I turn it off?  the IO turns off.  No one said I had to have a defence power to slot that stupid Kismet IO.  Obvious?  Not to me it wasn't. I was ready for cobbing it all in the bin.  And ergo.  There is the point.  So, I know where SCORE are coming from.  I have to either hack  powers out of my build to have fighting pool for weave or hack out a power for cj or hack out flight for hover to slot that IO.  I'll have to respec to do that.  So that's hacking powers out and 18 slots.  Just for insta-snipe?  Grrrr.  So, yes.  I've always been against this pay wall of IOs.  I feel that while IO builds can get greater than hasten speeds...of recharge I don't think perma-hasten should be behind a pay wall of IOs either.  I never did agree with i4 nerfing perma-hasten.  Energy was fun back then.  Slowing it down?  What did it have less?  Erratic mitigation of knbk.  So-so hitting power for a single target blaster.  A slow snipe.  A slow 'big' melee attack.  It just seemed like hard work post l35.  When malta, sappers could end drain you...stunned easily, de-toggled easy....expensive end...  Big list of complaints....yeah and the dev's didn't call...or send me flowers... :P)

 

I don't like...

 

The removal of aim/bu or PBoost to activate it.  (I'm not saying that you can't have an auto mode without those.  Does it have to be either or?  Can't we have both?  Ie.  When you're out side of combat range...you hit aim, build up or P boost to 'get it on.'

 

Ie.  YOu enter combat mode by accident or intent?  It's auto.

 

ie 2.  If you're OUTside of combat model and want to bypass 'slow snipe' you can DO SO by hitting aim/build up/P Boost or by popping an aim?

 

ie. 3.  You want the slow snipe?  Just hit snipe for the truck damage.

 

As for SCORE's development.  It's their perogative.  Every server or devs in this NEW ERA of democratised COH community will have their own flavour.  They broadly come from the same place of wanting to keep the game alive and making it better.  I guess, sooner or later, any dev' may do something(!) you don't like.  But there is choice out there.  That's a good thing.  SCORE have good taste.  And you can read from their posts that they aware of the pros and cons of what they are doing.  It's not something they do lightly.  There's risks with every step forward.

 

Their bug fixing has been a relevation.  The graphics fixes great.  The servers?  Smooth as butter.

 

The snipe 'fix' drew a very narrowed eye scrutiny from me.  ie.  I haven't been playing this snipe for 6 years.  I was really looking forward to this.  And it was going to be 'fixed.'  I was enjoying something and 'they had to fix it?' I cried.

 

Leandro has said, technically, under the hood there's two snipes.  (Not something a non-programmer like myself would know...)  I guess, yes.  Slow and fast.  And how it is on live?  It plays fine like that.  I barely use the 'slow' snipe.  And that, one could argue, is flawed.  So they trimmed the cast time and added damage.  And we get a 'cool' SNIPE!  I can't argue with that.  I like it.  I can see situations of 'judgement' where you'd use that.  eg.  To put the smack down on a boss or lieu.  Or a freak tank if you're me.

 

So, there is the intimation that perhaps the snipe work was 'unfinished.'  Perhaps.  Matt Millar (on his 'final' farewell interview) said they wanted to push out that beta to release.  There were some bugs.  Paragon wanted to do it as a farewell issue.  NC wouldn't allow it.  And so we'd have had snipe in it's current state on Home coming live.  That said.  Who's to say it wouldn't have been rebalanced or tweaked in some way.

 

All I can say is how it 'feels.'  Blasters need to be quick.  A longer charging snipe doesn't make sense when you're trying to make it 'insta' or trim the opening attack.  It grinds the cog wheels of the attack chain.  (Which on live?  Play sublimely.  Variety.  Fast.  INSTANT!  Apart from the initial....slow.....old...snipe.)

 

There's lots of good so far on test.  But I really want to test the 'old' or the 'present' recharge time with the new auto feature.

 

I'd like to see SCORE leave the 'manual' mode in for an 'over ride' mode out of combat.  So if I want a 'quick' lower damage snipe I can choose to have that as my up front attack.  AND?  And choose when to activate the auto mode in battle.

 

I'm not asking for much?  I'm so demanding. :P

 

Azrael.

[Captain Powerhouse]

Few "quick" answers:

 

Decreasing the range was something I went for because at least in my game play style, more range messes with me. My chain will always be ranged capped to the shortest range attack in my chain, I don't like starting an attack chain and realizing my next attack requires me to move closer (remember when Cosmic Burst was 60ft?) But we heard the feedback, no bueno, we reverted it. This is why we test.

 

The recharge was due to quite strict design rules the live team followed and we stick by. There is a damage formula, leo posted it here somewhere. If there is no special mechanic binding a power, if it behaves just as a regular attack, it is meant to do regular damage. That formula dictated the quick snipe be either lower damage or higher recharge. At the end, now we settled on adding a ToHit based special mechanic to justify higher damage at 12 second recharge.

 

Why not allow Aim/BU to trigger in-combat mode? For one, not everyone have those (power boost would only do that if you have a ToHit power like Tactics running.) Plus, this thread has already shown the bonus damage is desired, and you do have to try out taking out an annoying Lt with Build Up + Aim + Slow Snipe. So far, Leandro has been working hard on making the new Snipe set desirable so it does not feel like a penalty to go for it to get perma-fast-snipe.

 

On the delay, I covered this in an earlier post but there is a delay on some of the snipes that was not there before. That delay is still inside the 1.33 window. Outside of beta, currently, the attack fires at frame zero, before your character even moves and does the fire animation. Then you stay there, immobile, for 1.33 seconds. Now it happens at frame 17 (0.56 seconds into the animation) and you then have another 0.76 seconds to wait for the cycle to end.

 

Matt Millar (on his 'final' farewell interview) said they wanted to push out that beta to release.  There were some bugs.  Paragon wanted to do it as a farewell issue.  NC wouldn't allow it.

 

Note there is the context of the shutdown there. They got fired, Millar wanted to push the issue so those last few weeks of uptime everyone could play with what was done without the limitations of the singular test server. I doubt he would had tried to push it as it was without more work had the game not been abruptly shut down.

 

 

 

[Auroxis]

I still see no reason to keep Slow snipe, even if the new IO is no longer required to make it perma-insta.

 

It's Coarse (low DPA), Rough (wastes valuable aim+bu time), Irritating (movement interrupts it) and it gets everywhere (combat cooldown brings it when i don't want it).

 

 

[Golden Azrael]

Few "quick" answers:

 

Decreasing the range was something I went for because at least in my game play style, more range messes with me. My chain will always be ranged capped to the shortest range attack in my chain, I don't like starting an attack chain and realizing my next attack requires me to move closer (remember when Cosmic Burst was 60ft?) But we heard the feedback, no bueno, we reverted it. This is why we test.

 

The recharge was due to quite strict design rules the live team followed and we stick by. There is a damage formula, leo posted it here somewhere. If there is no special mechanic binding a power, if it behaves just as a regular attack, it is meant to do regular damage. That formula dictated the quick snipe be either lower damage or higher recharge. At the end, now we settled on adding a ToHit based special mechanic to justify higher damage at 12 second recharge.

 

Why not allow Aim/BU to trigger in-combat mode? For one, not everyone have those (power boost would only do that if you have a ToHit power like Tactics running.) Plus, this thread has already shown the bonus damage is desired, and you do have to try out taking out an annoying Lt with Build Up + Aim + Slow Snipe. So far, Leandro has been working hard on making the new Snipe set desirable so it does not feel like a penalty to go for it to get perma-fast-snipe.

 

On the delay, I covered this in an earlier post but there is a delay on some of the snipes that was not there before. That delay is still inside the 1.33 window. Outside of beta, currently, the attack fires at frame zero, before your character even moves and does the fire animation. Then you stay there, immobile, for 1.33 seconds. Now it happens at frame 17 (0.56 seconds into the animation) and you then have another 0.76 seconds to wait for the cycle to end.

 

Matt Millar (on his 'final' farewell interview) said they wanted to push out that beta to release.  There were some bugs.  Paragon wanted to do it as a farewell issue.  NC wouldn't allow it.

 

Note there is the context of the shutdown there. They got fired, Millar wanted to push the issue so those last few weeks of uptime everyone could play with what was done without the limitations of the singular test server. I doubt he would had tried to push it as it was without more work had the game not been abruptly shut down.

 

Hello Captain Powerhouse,

 

Thank you for the detailed response.

 

They sure did get 'fired.' :/  The manner of the shutdown was pure 'ignominy.'  I'm certainly glad those brave 'gungans' leaked the plans of the 'deathstar...'  so we could enjoy 'today.'

 

I'm clearer on the 'delay' on the snipe now.  It's a perceptional thing...due to where it is on the animation.  Technically.  That I understand now.  That would explain why I can 'almost' count a '1 sec' before it fires.  I get it now.  On live the arm goes up.  BOOM!  And congratulate yourself on a snipe well done.  ON Test?  Arm wobble, slight pause, pull.  For a quick snipe?  See below.

 

To me, in play, in my perception?  On live?  It looked like a quick hip trigger and me admiring my handiwork after.  Arm triggers up straight away.  Ker-power.  "I'm looking good."  On the test.  'Arm wobble' 'POW!'.  I can mentally see the difference in the animations.  aha.  Though I'll go onto the servers and do a quick check.  But I think I get it now.  Perceptionally, I think I prefer the current live method.  Keep the arm wobble for the 'slow' initial snipe.  And keep the 'hip' pull for the quick snipe. :)  Whether it's 'technically' proper or not is another matter.  In practice I thought it looked cool.  Perceptionally, I didn't notice that I 'stood' or 'hovered' (in my case.  Been doing alot of 'fly' not even 'hover' but fly sniping.  It's great!  Drift near a mob.  HIP PULL!) there for the rest of the activation time.  I was too busy 'looking good' to notice. :D  'Pull!'  Quick snipe.  Dead.  'PULL!'  Quick snipe.  Nearly dead.  'Pull...' snipe finished him off.  Have it with ketchup, nova, ex blast, energy punch, fries...power burst, onions.  Snipe to go.  What's not to like?

 

Regards,

 

Azrael.

 

PS.  I'll try the annoying Lieu with AIM+BU on the initial snipe. :D  (I'm still in the habit of spreading aim or bu or PB out to get the insta-most of the time...)

 

PPS.  I remember when Power Burst was really short.  It was annoying.  Having to 'step into' range of melee mobs then get my head kicked around in a sock.

[Golden Azrael]

Captain Powerhouse,

 

Been over to test server again.  Yes.  AIM + BU + Slow Snipe hits like a truck.  I do like the 'slow snipe' with the 'trim' to 2 sec.  I guess I can get used to the 'in and out of combat thing for the auto.

 

The one thing I won't miss having to hack my build to get 'insta-snipe'.  But with 3 slots of tactics and AIM or BU or PB I have it most of the time.  I guess I've just got used to playing that way.

 

Again, I guess we'll see how it plays when the recharge time goes back to 12 secs.

 

The one thing I would say.  I think the 'quick on the draw' snipe animation looks cooler on live.  Having an arm wobble for the slow snipe shows you're concentration to put more damage into it.

 

Where as I feel the current draw (technical stuff aside) on the instant-snipe on 'live' has a cooler end result?  Ergo?  'Look how quick he is on the draw.' Wild west style.  Elbows up in a split second.  Ker-POW!  'Don't mess with.'  Not sure having your arm out straight for a quick snipe is necessary.  Technically it may be right.  But then it just looks like the slow snipe to me.

 

It plays 'ok' like that.  (The extra recharge compounds my perception of it.  But I have tried looking at both from different camera view angles on both servers to see what you meant in your explanation.  Which I get.)  But I like the 'perceptional' in the blink of the eye 'he's fast' style.  His elbow is in the cocked position and off it flies straight away.  It seems to have more visual 'kick.'

 

I spend a half a sec or so admiring it. :)

 

Azrael.

[MechaMarshmallow]

I've not had the chance to play with all the different snipes on the test server as well as the live server yet, but I do think that it feels a lot cooler and more powerful for quick snipes to come out quickly and then have a longer 'recoil' than to have a moderate pre-load and then moderate recoil afterwards. It's more punchy and feels more like you're using a snipe in combat, which is why you have to spend the rest of the animation recovering.

 

Naturally the exact point at which the blast comes out will need to depend on the animation in the particular set in question, but I do think erring on the side of having it come out early is a more powerful feeling animation without actually impacting gameplay.

[Golden Azrael]

On the Domi's thing.

 

Elec/Elec's End Mod draining 'skirt' toggle is visually offensive and takes up 'half the screen'.  Is there any chance of looking at toning it down.  (Remember when the original Sonic powers seemed to get graphically modded for inducing head aches.)  It looks like a jelly fish.  It's the one elec power on domi control I don't like the look of.

 

Azrael.

[Golden Azrael]

I've not had the chance to play with all the different snipes on the test server as well as the live server yet, but I do think that it feels a lot cooler and more powerful for quick snipes to come out quickly and then have a longer 'recoil' than to have a moderate pre-load and then moderate recoil afterwards. It's more punchy and feels more like you're using a snipe in combat, which is why you have to spend the rest of the animation recovering.

 

Naturally the exact point at which the blast comes out will need to depend on the animation in the particular set in question, but I do think erring on the side of having it come out early is a more powerful feeling animation without actually impacting gameplay.

 

Well put.  That's what I was trying to say. :)

 

Azrael.

[senseichen]

It sounds like the decision to unify the Blaster and Dom Snipes came before the recharge adjustments?  I'm really hoping we just leave the recharge longer for Doms, with whatever the formula says that means for Dom fast snipe damage (and the ToHit->Damage buff.)

[Pzn]

It sounds like the decision to unify the Blaster and Dom Snipes came before the recharge adjustments?  I'm really hoping we just leave the recharge longer for Doms, with whatever the formula says that means for Dom fast snipe damage (and the ToHit->Damage buff.)

 

Leave the recharge longer only if the damage doesn't get nerfed like it is currently on beta.  If it's nerfed so badly they need the faster recharge

[Golden Azrael]

It sounds like the decision to unify the Blaster and Dom Snipes came before the recharge adjustments?  I'm really hoping we just leave the recharge longer for Doms, with whatever the formula says that means for Dom fast snipe damage (and the ToHit->Damage buff.)

 

Leave the recharge longer only if the damage doesn't get nerfed like it is currently on beta.  If it's nerfed so badly they need the faster recharge

 

Ironically, I've been on my elec elec Domi.  The snipe on that is fine.  I don't mind thelonger recharge on that.  Keep it as it is.  It's fine.  Seems to hit hard enough too.  I wonder if it will have the 'up front' slow snipe damage too?

 

Longer recharge as is on Domi.

 

Shorter back to normal recharge on Blaster.

 

That's what I feel from playing both.  Look forward to playing the changes back to 12 sec on Blaster with the auto snipe changes.

 

The Domi seems fine as is in terms of damage/recharge.

 

I hope that makes sense.  It's getting late.

 

Azrael.

[termyt]

I've never really studied the numbers and don't mind the changes.  If this has already been said, I apologize, but I just became aware of these pending changes.

 

1.  Dark Blast -> Moonbeam - this is a longer range power already, is it not?  The base range is currently 175 and mine is at 200.  Is this one, since it's not Psi, going to get cut to 150 max?

 

2.  About the range nerf - I don't mind if "fast snipe" range is reduced - but could we leave the slow snipe range max off?  One of my key abilities on my rad/dark defender is its ability to pull extremely well and range on Moonbeam is key to that.

[Griffinmills]

Have played an Ice/Energy and Ar/Devices Blaster since issue 1 of the old servers.  I've seen a lot of changes over the years! ;D  I've even recreated them on the old VIP servers when that was a thing.  Also have a couple of perma-dom Dominators once that became a thing.  Saw the comment about "didn't even log into (test) at all" thought about all I've played of CoX over the years plus over a decade of paid video game development and QA experience, and went off to test like a good little monkey to make these characters, again, and try some of the changes. ::)

 

There being little relevant to Ice/Energy Blasters changed I skipped that.

 

Remade my old Ar/Dev (still got my old Mids and costumes files) used the commands for Inf and Levels, picked powers and slots, slotted some enhancements and ran off to PI to street sweep a bit before getting into deeper testing. 

 

Thoughts specifically relevant to snipe changes...

 

The fast snipe indicator is fine and seems to work correctly.

Fast snipes work just like any other blast power when in combat and seems to work correctly.

The snipe changing damage fairly dramatically between slow and fast versions definitely threw me off for quite a while.  This damage swing ended up bothering me more than I think it should.  Maybe I would get comfortable with this after a longer period of experience with it like if my character was build from the ground up rather than a granted 50?  Still, not sure a power should behave quite so differently.

The longer cast time and rooting effect when using a fast snipe in combat is very noticeable and not great, in my opinion and experience.  Most Blaster animations will be complete in about the length of one quick jump or slightly longer.  Strangely it is listed as being shorter than the animation (activation time) in, say, Slug.  Wondering if this is just perception or related to the effects mentioned here by others on test server.  Regardless, I'm fairly certain it is closer to 3 seconds in some scenarios, like right after placing a Trip Mine?

 

Thoughts adjacent to the snipe adjustments and other Blaster changes present...

 

Toxic Web Grenade is a change probably for the best.  In the end I wished it could now be swapped with the new version of High Voltage Taser but that would be a whole other kettle of fish and or can of worms!  As some others have mentioned, maybe the damage type is a little funny, crushing damage is usually represented as smashing type in game.  A nitpick but fair.  Maybe it's a net with poison on it, not crushing them with a net!

 

High Voltage Taser is pretty darn nice.  So nice that I thank goodness it is a quick cast animation (activation time 1 second) power or I would want it back to the longer effect, longer recharge version so my blasting wasn't constantly interrupted.  As it is it's still pushing it's luck.  Again, if it was the primary power choice over web grenade... a blasty girl can dream?

 

Targeting Drone and Field Operative, the overpowered just got more overpowered.  ;D  These plus two 7.5 and one 8.75 global recharge IO bonuses (ATO's and a SotM Snipe set) put you 25 seconds off perma-hasten (123.75 recharge when Hasten is up) and all that in two powers (5 if you count 2 attacks and a snipe for slotting purposes) that also give you 20+ hp/sec regeneration and 1.63% end/sec on top of Health and Stamina and an astounding 28.86 ToHit Buff from 3 SOs in Targeting Drone? This isn't bragging this is just what you get from some really simple IO/ATO slotting and some SO's.  Wow and more thoughts in a bit to clarify below in the general overall thoughts.

 

Time Bomb has lost some of its uniqueness by becoming a five second plant it and pray "nuke."  It also suffers difficulty with being synced up with a Trip Mine any more because 80% of the time (80.00% chance for 8.31 magnitude knockback on target) Time Bomb knocks the targets away before the Trip Mine can be finished being placed. I used to do this wombo combo a bunch (using the blinking light on Time Bomb to make timing easy) when soloing or on smaller teams and have a fondness for it even if it's maybe a waste of time in the grand scheme of things.

 

Not sure how the interaction between faster Time Bomb cast and time to damage versus bog standard Trip Mine plays out yet.  Are we just sort of paving the road to Trip Mine being made easier to use?  Both Trip Mine and Time Bomb fire off the buff on (successful) cast but Time Bomb the buff comes up about a full second before you are free to move and act again (still stuck in Time Bomb casting animation) where Trip Mine it's right at the end and could be even earlier if interrupt enhancements are used.  Do the realities of landing, even in its improved state, a Time Bomb that is "worth it" trump the cold hard math behind a defiance damage nerf? 

 

Thoughts on Blasters in general overall.

There are a lot of powers that are going to be must have or near must have status.  From my Ar/Dev experience POV with some explanations that may apply to blasting globally...

Burst and Slug, because they work while mezed due to Defiance.  Same for any Blaster.

Same with Toxic Web Grenade, although everyone has to take their first secondary power.  Again, High Voltage Taser here would be amazing.  Speaking of...

High Voltage Taser, super solid mez and damage option in a secondary.

A Snipe if you get one, because of everything going into them in this and previous patches.

A Couple of AoE damage powers because Blasters do this pretty darn well and you'll likely need more than 1 so you can cycle them well on each pull.

Your Tier 9 attack in addition to these AoE attacks because they've been tweaked up to be so darn amazing with improved recharges, no crash and better average damage across the board.

Targeting Drone, an absolute PILE of ToHit and 30% recharge? Yes please.  (Build Up for non Devices sets usually)

• Other sets have access to Aim which I think is a no brainer pick as well.

Field Operative, Recovery, Regeneration, Stealth and Defense all in one power.  Or Energize or Drain Psyche or whatever your secondary equivalent is.

Beanbag to go with High Voltage Tazer.  IE: Two somethings that have synergize with whatever crowd control you have access to so you can two tap lock down bosses fast. 

Trip Mine and Time Bomb.  Strong powers for crowds that add solid defiance damage to boot and provide alternative game play options like setting up traps for pulls, etc.  Things like Power Boost, Boost Range, Frozen Aura and such in other sets.

Gun Drone, your little buddy that helps pull aggro so you can do your thing more safely or just adds DPS when everything is under control.  Or whatever your Tier 9 is, they are usually pretty amazing, some more than others any more.

Hasten, the devil we all know whose -20 end crash is easily handled on Blasters now.

Epic/Ancillary power pool shields because we all get hit, might as well try to mitigate it a bit.

Epic/Ancillary pet options, same thing as Gun Drone pretty much.

Epic/Ancillary miscellaneous options, Force of Nature, LRM, Etc. and/or What Have You.  Big LRM fan here on my Ice/Energy for example but would probably go with something else on AR/Dev since I have a in set Snipe.

(The following is more near must have, personally I find them must haves)

Combat Jump for immobilize protection and the excellent maneuverability it provides for negligible endurance cost and a great place to stick defense IOs.  (Hover is another option here.)

While I'm in the Jumping power pool I might as well grab Super Jump (because lord knows I'm not grabbing Jump Kick) on my way to Acrobatics which has solid Knock back/up Protection, Mag 2 Hold protection and 50% Hold resistance for less than .2 endurance per second on an AT that now has next to zero endurance concerns.  Although somewhat depreciated in a world of KB protection IOs I find it still worth it personally.

Super Speed to stack with Field Operative or power pool stealth or a stealth IO in sprint/slide for PvE invisibility, easy choice because of Hasten and just a solid option on Blasters in general and particularly and /devices who like to get in early and set Trip Mine or Time Bomb.

 

How best to sum up?  This is all a probably a, "Problem you want to have" scenario but we have a lot of must have powers.  The more you diversify the above picks, let's say by dropping the Jumping power pool picks in favor of even more attacks, you will hit a solid slot crunch as well.  On top of that you're also not going to have a reasonable chance to cycle these "even more attacks" in most combat scenarios.  Some players had already dropped snipe attacks from their builds (often with an eye focused on AoE attacks) as a response to these realities but now these changes (Snipes and Sustain) are going to ratchet that crunch back into full effect I'm thinking. 

 

I'm not saying don't implement the changes, mind you.  I don't think the answer can or would be Blasters get more slots or something either.  Maybe the Sustain changes in powers like Field Operative could be made to be larger base amounts but ignore buffs and enhancements?  This would do something to alleviate slot crunch, at least a little.

 

Thoughts on Blasters that don't have snipes.

Dual Pistols, Ice Blast, Sonic Attack and Water Blast all don't have a snipe.  I have extensive experience in all but Water Blast.  Dual Pistols was tuned up nicely with the late animation changes and Sonic Attack can be very damaging with it's -res debuffs but may need a little tweaking. 

 

Now Ice Blast though?  Ice Blast has TWO AoE attacks (Frost Breath and Ice Storm) total and thus thrived on its ability to sling hard hitting single target attacks as quickly as possible.  Ice Blast never really recovered from the animation time normalization passes that helped so many other sets but left this one really smarting.  Ice Bolt used to be a sub 1 second cast and Ice Blast closer to 1.15/1.25 or so.  They wouldn't need to return to these exact values as perhaps a sub 1 second animation time was a little low but something closer to this would help the set get back it's footing in a Fast Snipe world.  Ice Blast in particular has never looked right having essentially a .5 second "duhhhh my arm is tired" animation time tacked on to the end of it.  I really miss slinging out 8+ attacks during Aim or Build Up.  ;)

 

Ice Blast did get a nice bump of damage in Freeze Ray gaining a rapid high damage dot.  (Small nitpick from me as it did have niche use before the damage buff in holding Nemesis LTs without killing them thus activating their vengeance but the set needs some damage in a post Fast Snipe world so, compromises are made. :))  I'm not sure it would need much more than that Freeze Ray bump and the animation times tweak to get it back into a good spot as a more single target specialist.

 

This is incredibly long and I'm totally willing to hear other viewpoints on a lot of it.  Thank you for reading.  Thank you for having a test server and thank you for being willing to take feedback and act on it!

[Tater Todd]

I agree Griff about Ice Blast.  I think a good way of making it competitive after the change is a bump up in damage to Bitter Freeze Ray.  That way you don't have to worry about tweaking the animation.

[scran]

I'll admit to not having played on the beta, but I lean towards higher cd/higher dmg snipes for Doms, since they tend to be busy with primary control and dont always stick to a pure dps rotation. (though still scaling with +hit)

[Super Homer]

Bitter Freeze ray already does as much damage as a snipe outside of beta.

 

BFR = 172.67 cold damage

Moonbeam 172.67 dark damage

 

And if you focusing on the DPA, Bitter Ice Blast does 133.3 damage with a 1.07 cast time.

 

With ArcanaTime accounted for, BIB has 118.65 DPA.

Moonbeam (quick, live) has 118.10 DPA.

[senseichen]

I'm not sure I understand why /Devices is getting buffed for the sniper changes?  Is there a reason it was getting hit particularly hard relative to other blaster secondaries? I thought maybe Targeting Drone was less important to get to 22%, but it sounds like 22% will be as important as ever, and /Devices walks away with a giant recharge boost, and some other buffs?

[Adeon Hawkwood]

I'm not sure I understand why /Devices is getting buffed for the sniper changes?  Is there a reason it was getting hit particularly hard relative to other blaster secondaries? I thought maybe Targeting Drone was less important to get to 22%, but it sounds like 22% will be as important as ever, and /Devices walks away with a giant recharge boost, and some other buffs?

Even with the Sniper changes Devices was a bit under-powered compared to other blaster secondaries so with the exception of the recharge buffs the proposed changes are things that were probably overdue anyway. Web Grenade not having a DoT always hurt /Devices blasters at lower levels since most Blasters use their immobilize to fill out their attack chain until they get more primary attacks. The Taser change is to compensate for the fact that devices doesn't have any melee attacks so it loses out on damage there as well. Finally Time Bomb is essentially useless in it's current state so a buff has been needed for a while really.

 

The recharge buff is the only one I would consider a real "buff" but the thing is it's consistent with the current devs vision for Blaster secondaries. If you look at the new blaster secondaries three of the four (Tactical Arrow, Time and Atomic) all have a 20% recharge buff stuck in there somewhere. So it looks like a recharge buff is part of the new design philosophy for Blaster secondaries. I wouldn't be surprised if the devs go back and add recharge buffs to the other Blaster secondaries overtime in the same way they added a sustain power to each secondary.