Focused Feedback: Seismic Blast

[Hjarki]

Just now, underfyre said:

Well how about this, what AT are you playing? Mine is a Corruptor.

My example was from a Blaster. But it worked the same with the Defender version. I am playing on a Mac via Island Rum, if that might make a difference in the files.

[Underfyre]

13 minutes ago, Hjarki said:

My example was from a Blaster. But it worked the same with the Defender version. I am playing on a Mac via Island Rum, if that might make a difference in the files.

 

I doubt being on a Mac is going to have different results, and I'm not seeing anything on City of Data about the cooldown changing. I'm not seeing a difference in recharge rates 0% and 103.9% (enh+ golbal). I can't tell where you are or what you're doing in your screenshot, but is it just a Pylon like mine, or are there mobs that might be applying recharge debuffs?

 

I've just gone through two minutes of attacking a Pylon just to see if maybe prolonged casting might trigger it, but I'm not seeing any change in recast whatsoever.

[Hjarki]

9 minutes ago, underfyre said:

 

I doubt being on a Mac is going to have different results, and I'm not seeing anything on City of Data about the cooldown changing. I'm not seeing a difference in recharge rates 0% and 103.9% (enh+ golbal). I can't tell where you are or what you're doing in your screenshot, but is it just a Pylon like mine, or are there mobs that might be applying recharge debuffs?

 

I've just gone through two minutes of attacking a Pylon just to see if maybe prolonged casting might trigger it, but I'm not seeing any change in recast whatsoever.

As I stated, I was fighting against random street mobs in Perez Park. However, this behavior is consistent wherever I used the power.

 

Also, in the first picture you can see the recharge on Entomb at 4 secs. If I was being affected by the kind of recharge reduction that would impact Stalagmites so significantly, Entomb would have never been recharged by the time the second picture was taken.

 

I rolled up a Corruptor and the recharge on both the empowered and non-empowered version was 20 sec. So it might be an AT-specific bug.

[Underfyre]

Just now, Hjarki said:

I rolled up a Corruptor and the recharge on both the empowered and non-empowered version was 20 sec. So it might be an AT-specific bug.

 

That's what testing is for, amirite?

[Hjarki]

How do you get City of Data to display data from the Beta?

[Underfyre]

1 minute ago, Hjarki said:

How do you get City of Data to display data from the Beta?

 

In the top right next to the question mark where the version info is. The last data pull is from august 11, so it's a bit behind.

[Bopper]

@Hjarki for your tests, what level were you and what level were your enemies when you used Entomb and when you used Stalagmites? And what was your AT for each test? 

[Underfyre]

Loaded up a level 36 Defender to get Stalagmites and started street sweeping through Perez, still can replicate., Going to move inside the park now...

[Hjarki]

58 minutes ago, Bopper said:

@Hjarki for your tests, what level were you and what level were your enemies when you used Entomb and when you used Stalagmites? And what was your AT for each test? 

I posted pictures of a test I did as a Seismic/Devices Blaster. II had xp for 50, but only 26 actual levels (minimum for Stalagmites). I believe I took all the powers in primary except for the cone. Nothing was slotted on the character and the only powers I had active were the Devices stealth power and movement powers (Super Jump/Combat Jumping).

 

I started at Ms. Liberty, hopped over to Perez Park and just engaged the first mobs I saw there (they were all grey Hellions). II attacked them with a combination of the various single target powers until the ground was shaking, then I used Stalagmites and got a 1:45 recharge.

 

However, the only reason I ran the above test in the first place was to generate the screenshots to demonstrate what I was observing. I had already seen the behavior consistently on a 'real' test character that was fully leveled and slotted on legitimate at-level content. I just assumed that was intended behavior.

 

When I went to test the Corruptor (Seismic/FF), I went to Talos and engaged some random street Tsoo (probably not the wisest choice given Hurricane, but they were still grey). The Corruptor recharge was 20 sec. When I took the Blaster out to Talos, the recharge was 1:45 sec on the same sort of Tsoo.

Edited November 14, 2021 by Hjarki

[Underfyre]

Ok, replicated on the same Blaster build in Perez. Going to fiddle around and see if I can find anything.

[Bopper]

I think there are multiple bugs going on. Corruptor and Defender Normal Stalagmites is still set to 20s when it's supposed to be like Blaster's 10s. Also, Blaster's Enhanced Stalagmites is not ignoring combat mods, so hitting a low level enemy is setting the recharge waaaay too high, and I bet if you hit a high level enemy it will set the recharge waaaay too low. To top it all off, Corruptor and Defender is not recharging the correct power, so you just see the regular 20s every time. So it's basically two wrongs making a right in the Corruptor/Defender case.

[Underfyre]

Hitting an equal level enemy is putting the recharge to 20s instead of the 10s.

[noogens]

My initial thoughts with playing with all the powers with the Crystal animations

1. The graphics are a bit loud.  Tombstone and Upthrust are way too large.  The screen shake with each power is a bit much even though I know you can turn it off in the settings.
2. I wish upthrust and meteor hit enemies quicker. 

I got a slight headache playing this but I'll revisit the set if the graphics get a tweak. 

[graeberguinn]

Figured I'd throw in my 2 cents on this new powerset. Overall I like the feel of the set as a whole. It has a very "smashy" and "crunchy" feel to it likend to Stone Melee/Assault. I am of the opinion that all blast sets do not need to be copies of each other and that each of the elements/weapons should have a different feel and flavor to them. In that regard I think you succeeded fairly well. That being said I have a few thoughts of what I'd like to see changed or tweaked. 

First off I would add alternate animations for those that do not like the ground up shards. Probably would look like throwing boulders/rocks as I've seen other in here suggest. Also as was stated I would give alternate animation to Rock Shards. Again as was stated earlier in this post, maybe similar to energy torrent. 

Next I was not happy with all the Light damage attacks. I feel with Earth/rocks we should have highter dmg attacks.. I've never been a fan personally of blast sets with light/minor dmg attacks. Add to that, I like the -DEF available to attacks, but I would like to see a unique mechanic to this Blast set for all attacks with either Chance to Dissorent / Knockdown on every attack. Seems fitting for element type. 

I'm not a fan personally of the seismic waves effect. I never got any use for it as I played the set as ranged as possible. I would like it more if it had an effect as the more targets you hit or the more attacks you used it would build up stroanger waves around you while in combat. Kind of akin to Brute fury that they waves would decrease in effect after some time or after ending combat. 

Upthrust seemed to have a delay in the animatin on my character to when it actually hit the targets. Would like to see it be a bit smoother and quicker. 

I am not a fan of the Nuke. As i've 50'd and Ice blaster, I'm ok with a different kind of Nuke but I feel like it was way to long and I did not like the Auto KB. Would rather see it be a type of rain power or possibly like earth control stalagmites, with shards repeatedly shooting out of area in ground akin to a rain power with a Hight change to Dissorient or KD. 

I would like the single target Stalagmite to just be a High Dmg Power. And I am not a fan of this power, or earth control stalagmites, being a ground only power. I would like an alternate animation if not on ground so you could use it while flying. This is sometihng that has bothered me personally as I would love to have a Flying Earth/Storm toon. And I feel would be a great QOL improvement. For theme/RP purposes why would this not fit with these powers not being ground based. 

For the aim, Siesmic Force, I would make it more like Water blast with Tidal Forces. Have a choice between a secondary effect or higher dmg for Rock Shards / Upthrust. Auto KD. HIgher -DEF. I dont like the option the have and aim power recharge in half time. Never had any use for it myself. 

 

As stated before I like the set overall. And am looking forward to Live release so I can further feed into my altitis. IMHO the 2 main changes I would love to see are to fix Stalagmite to High dmg always and not ground based, and change the Nuke. 

 

 

[Doc_Scorpion]

With the new patch, the description of Rock Shards is inconsistent...  It still mentions DoT, which has been changed to all up-front damage.

[Booper]

Build 2 - Seismic Blast

 

Seismic Blast 

New primary for Blasters and Corruptors, new secondary for Defenders.

 

You can manipulate earth and stone to defeat your foes. The crushing force of many Earth Powers can reduce a target's Defense.

 

Being of the Earth, you are the most powerful while on the ground. While grounded, your attacks increase Seismic Pressure. As your Seismic Pressure increases, the cooldown of other Seismic Blast attacks is reduced and your chances of triggering Seismic Shockwaves around you also increase. These Seismic Shockwaves will have a chance of knocking back foes and, while standing on the ground, empower some of your attacks. Rock Shards will have its area and damage increased. Seismic Force will cooldown in half the time. Stalagmite will deal a large amount of damage.

Seismic Shockwaves:

• Fix: Removed protection text references from Seismic Shockwaves.
• Is now customizable.
• No longer wakes up sleeping enemies.
• Knockdown changed to vector based so its always knockdown.
• Should make the screen shake a lot less.
•   Encase  Ranged, Light DMG(Smash), Foe -Jump, -Fly, -DEF

  • Encase a foe in stone for a short moment, dealing damage and lowering their defense. They will also become heavy, limiting their ability to jump and fly for a short time. 

  • Encase grants one stack of Seismic Pressure.

  • Fix: Added ability to slot Accurate Defense Debuff and Defense Debuff sets. Added ability to slot Defense Debuff enhancements.

  • (Defender/Corruptor) Recharge and damage slightly increased.

•   Shatter  Ranged, Light DMG(Smash), Foe -Jump, -Fly, -DEF
  • Cover a foe in stone shards and shatter them, inflicting light damage and lowering their defense. They will also become heavy, limiting their ability to jump and fly for a short time. 

  • Shatter grants one stack of Seismic Pressure.

  • Fix: Added ability to slot Accurate Defense Debuff and Defense Debuff sets. Added ability to slot Defense Debuff enhancements.

  • (Defender/Corruptor) Recharge and damage slightly increased.

•   Rock Shards  Ranged Cone, Light DMG(Lethal), -Defense, Special
  • You launch a volley of stone shards at your target in a sweeping cone. These shards stab into the target, causing lethal damage. They will also continue to suffer additional lethal damage over time.

  •   If affected by Seismic Shockwaves, this power will halt the shockwaves, the up front damage will be increased and damage over time accelerated, foes will be knocked down, range will be increased to 60ft and arc to 40 degrees.

  • Rock Shards grants one stack of Seismic Pressure.

  • Fix: Added ability to slot Accurate Defense Debuff sets.

  • Enhanced version range lowered to 60ft.

  • Enhanced damage is no longer a DoT, it is now entirely up-front.

•   Entomb  Ranged, High DMG(Smash), Foe -Jump, -Fly, -DEF

  • Entomb foes in a big boulder, dealing high damage and lowering their defense. They will also become heavy, limiting their ability to jump and fly for a short time. 

  • Entomb grants one stack of Seismic Pressure.

  • Fix: Added ability to slot Accurate Defense Debuff sets.

  • (Blaster Only) Recharge and damage slightly lowered.

  • Fix: Removed bug that would show a flaming arrow in the power customization screen.

•   Seismic Force  Self +To Hit, +DMG, +Special

  • Greatly increases the chance to hit of your attacks for a few seconds. Slightly increases damage.

  •   If affected by Seismic Shockwaves, this power will decrease the cooldown of all Seismic Blast attacks by a moderate amount.

  • This power no longer cuts its own recharge in half when affected by Seismic Shockwaves. Instead it will reduce the cooldown of all other Seismic Blast attacks that are currently recharging (typically 25% reduction).

•   Upthrust  Targeted AoE, Light DMG(Smashing), -Fly, -Defense, Chance to Knockdown
  • You channel seismic energy into the earth, causing a micro-fault to erupt under your target. This causes a shard of rock to thrust upward out of the ground, dealing smashing damage and lowering their defense. Affected foes will become heavy, limiting their ability to jump and fly for a short time. The force of the eruption can knockback enemies.

  • Upthrust grants one stack of Seismic Pressure.

  • Fix: Added ability to slot Accurate Defense Debuff and Defense Debuff sets. Added ability to slot Defense Debuff enhancements.

•   Tombstone  Sniper, High DMG(Smash), Foe -Jump, -Fly
  • Create a giant pillar of stone, creating a Tombstone around your target dealing extreme damage and limiting their ability to jump and fly for a short time. 

  • This is a sniper attack, and is best fired from a distance as it can be interrupted. If you are engaged in battle this attack becomes instant-cast. If you are not engaged, it will do bonus damage.

  • Tombstone grants one stack of Seismic Pressure.

  • Fix: Removed the ability to slot Defense Debuff enhancements.

  • Tombstone icon changed

  • (Blaster Only) fixed bug where the temporary range buff was being granted by the Quick Snipe instead of the Normal Snipe.

•   Stalagmite  Ranged, Variable DMG(Smash), Foe Disorient, Special
  • You can cause a Stalagmite to erupt under an enemy dealing minimal Lethal damage and Disorienting them for a good while. You must be on the ground to activate this power.

  •   If affected by Seismic Shockwaves, this power will halt the shockwaves and deal extreme damage. Bonus Damage is only 2/3rds enhanceable.

  • Stalagmite grants one stack of Seismic Pressure.

  • Recharge lowered to 8s unempowered, 16s empowered.

  • Empowered Damage is now fully enhanceable but lowered to scale 2.92

  • Range increased to 80ft

  • Added IgnoreCombatMods flag to the RechargePower effect in Enhanced Stalagmites. Hitting foes of different levels set the recharge to unintended values.

  • (Defender/Corruptor) Fixed a bug where the RechargePower was set to the Blaster version.

•   Meteor  Ranged (Location AoE), Extreme DMG(Smashing) Foe Knockback
  • You call down a meteor strike from the sky at a specified location. All targets within 30' are caught in the blast radius, taking extreme damage and being knocked back.
  • Note: This power uses the knock vector system. You'll notice the foes will be knocked up and back.
  • Fix: Increased accuracy to 1.4x to match other nukes.

[WindDemon21]

1 hour ago, Booper said:

Enhanced version range lowered to 60ft.

This is good, though let's split the difference and make it a 50ft arc always, and no boosted range when seismic shockwaves are up.

 

1 hour ago, Booper said:

Blaster Only) fixed bug where the temporary range buff was being granted by the Quick Snipe instead of the Normal Snipe.

This has always worked for all ATs when the quicksnipe was used. Often times it's one of the main reasons to get the snipe to boost the range of cones during combat. So is seismic blast being screwed out of something that all other blast sets get? (please for the love of god don't tell me this means other sets are getting nerfed to not get the range bonus when the quick snipe is used.

[WindDemon21]

Also I have closed out of the launcher, revalidated files several times and it keeps saying I'm running the wrong version of the game patch.

 

Also haven't checked, but please make sure that rock shards can take KB sets as well.

Edited November 16, 2021 by WindDemon21

[Wavicle]

10 minutes ago, WindDemon21 said:

This has always worked for all ATs when the quicksnipe was used. Often times it's one of the main reasons to get the snipe to boost the range of cones during combat. So is seismic blast being screwed out of something that all other blast sets get? (please for the love of god don't tell me this means other sets are getting nerfed to not get the range bonus when the quick snipe is used.

I’m not entirely sure what you’re talking about here.

 

If you’re talking about the boosted range that blasters get after using their sniper attack, that was always only blasters, and as far as I am aware (at least on other power sets) you still get that buff both from fast sniper and slow sniper.

 

if you’re simply talking about the long range of slow sniper attacks, that was removed from fast snipes back in page 2.

 

Am I misunderstanding either your comment or this patch note?

[WindDemon21]

1 minute ago, Wavicle said:

I’m not entirely sure what you’re talking about here.

 

If you’re talking about the boosted range that blasters get after using their sniper attack, that was always only blasters, and as far as I am aware (at least on other power sets) you still get that buff both from fast sniper and slow sniper.

 

if you’re simply talking about the long range of slow sniper attacks, that was removed from fast snipes back in page 2.

 

Am I misunderstanding either your comment or this patch note?

Ah you may be right about the AT, thought it was all AT (which really it should IMO). But this seems to reference specifically that you don't get the range buff when using the faster in combat snipe, like every other blast set's snipe gives while in combat. So is seismic blast just screwed out of this then? Cause that would be dumb.

[Wavicle]

Just now, WindDemon21 said:

Ah you may be right about the AT, thought it was all AT (which really it should IMO). But this seems to reference specifically that you don't get the range buff when using the faster in combat snipe, like every other blast set's snipe gives while in combat. So is seismic blast just screwed out of this then? Cause that would be dumb.

@Captain Powerhouse Can we get some clarification here?

 

Has the temporary range buff that blasters get from using their sniper attacks been removed from all fast snipes? If so, when did that happen and where is that patch note?

[WindDemon21]

4 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

@Captain Powerhouse Can we get some clarification here?

 

Has the temporary range buff that blasters get from using their sniper attacks been removed from all fast snipes? If so, when did that happen and where is that patch note?

Just going to state first hand that this would be 100% dumb and downvoted. I have a dark blaster for example i made specifically to get both tentacle cones and this would 100% invalidate him if those cones didn't get the constant range buff from the snipe.

[Booper]

8 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

@Captain Powerhouse Can we get some clarification here?

 

Has the temporary range buff that blasters get from using their sniper attacks been removed from all fast snipes? If so, when did that happen and where is that patch note?

You're right, it was an oversight. Both quick and normal snipes should give a 50% buff for 10s. It'll be fixed in next patch

[Wavicle]

13 minutes ago, WindDemon21 said:

Ah you may be right about the AT, thought it was all AT (which really it should IMO). But this seems to reference specifically that you don't get the range buff when using the faster in combat snipe, like every other blast set's snipe gives while in combat. So is seismic blast just screwed out of this then? Cause that would be dumb.

Side note: I think the reason this was given only to Blasters is because defeating the enemy before it reaches you is more important on the class with no CC, Armor, or Buffs.

[WindDemon21]

3 minutes ago, Booper said:

You're right, it was an oversight. Both quick and normal snipes should give a 50% buff for 10s. It'll be fixed in next patch

Thank GOD! Tentacles LIVES!