Focused Feedback: Blast Power Set Updates

[High_Beam]

6 hours ago, The Curator said:

Dual Pistols

Suppressive Fire

• Cast time reduced from 1.67s to 1.5s.
• Recharge reduced from 20s to 8s.
• Damage increased from scale 0.1 to scale 1.64.
• Hold effectiveness reduced.

Still having no luck moving characters to Test to test.

[ScarySai]

Still processing, but a decent look at AR's aoe capabilities now.

 

 

Single target could be better, but I wouldn't rule out an incinerate buff.

[brass_eagle]

4 hours ago, ScarySai said:

In order for ignite to be made as good as incinerator out of the box, it'd have to root your target, make things standing in it convert all knockback to knockdown, and work on fleeing mobs reliably.

 

That's the bare minimum, and I really doubt we're getting anything like that. The novelty of ignite is fun, we all love lighting our friends on fire, but in terms of function, it's unrealistic to expect "just buffing" ignite to work.

 

This is the most realistic take on the change. While I have yet to fully test the changes, there were a lot of negative reactions early in the thread.

 

I have always tried to make Ignite work on my AR blasters. I still take it.. Every. Gosh. Darn. Time. It seems good on paper, but even removing the 'fear' the AoE is non-existent if you use a targeting macro. I used it as a single target power anyway. And I still have to babysit-root the target if there's no controller spamming immob. Take that time away from it's "DPA". That is unrealistic for many enemies / teams not even including late-game content. Novelty is good, but I'd like to use the power and not just hope it works with too much effort. I fall into the trap every time!

 

Anyways, will continue testing with the limited time I have -- giving my thumbs-up though. This feels great so far. GJ HC team.

 

 

[Booper]

1 hour ago, InflamedPassions said:

There appears to be an issue with Psionic Darts at the moment which causes it to consume much more endurance than usual when hitting multiple targets. On the build I created for Brainstorm, it's supposed to cost around 8.5 endurance, but when I hit several targets, it winds up eating half of my endurance bar.

Good catch, fixed internally.

[Seldom]

Any reason the many tweaks to psy blast powers are not tweaked for dominators as well? Psy assault is almost all psy blasts.

 

Edit to clarify: especially faster cast times are appreciated on assault sets, as being rooted/animation locked when one needs to quickly layer on controls can be very dicey.

Edited April 6, 2023 by Barneysaurus

[Booper]

2 minutes ago, Barneysaurus said:

Any reason the many tweaks to psy blast powers are not tweaked for dominators as well? Psy assault is almost all psy blasts.

This is not a balance pass for Assault sets, only Blast sets. While we're on the topic, VEATs, Epics, and any other powers that share the same name from Blast sets are also not a part of this pass and won't be considered for this page.

[Tacheyon]

Will the activation changes with Assault Rifle transfer over to Mercs in MM's?  Or are their skills already pretty similar? 

[ScarySai]

Just now, Tacheyon said:

Will the activation changes with Assault Rifle transfer over to Mercs in MM's?  Or are their skills already pretty similar? 

 

no, but they already got their own buffs awhile ago.

[High_Beam]

Okay got the two DP Blasters, one DP Corr and 1 DP Sent over.  30 minutes of back and forth fighting same mobs on Excelsior and Brainstorm and I am super not liking the overall changes to Suppressive Fire.  I need to put the numbers together and compose my thoughts into something truly practical because I am kind of angry now as to why this was even done and how it has fundamentally rendered the power combat ineffective for what it is supposed to be😠.  You will need to rename it to something more appropriate, like say "Plinking"💩.  Seriously I need to sleep on this.

 

[stryve]

I only have Psychic Blast on a Sentinel, but here's my two cents after taking it for a spin on Brainstorm.

 

The cast time reduction on Psychic Scream and Psionic Tornado is pretty great, and does help with AOE, which is something the set struggled with outside Psychic Wail.  The new Scramble Minds helps a bit there as well, in a tightly packed group. 
 

However, at level 50 Scramble Minds has an unenhanced average damage of 61.7.  This is a rather significant reduction from the existing Scramble Thoughts, which has an unenhanced average damage of 217.77.  That's less than Telekinetic Blast, and a really noticeable difference in my single target chain.  Any reason it was hit quite that hard?

[ScarySai]

3 minutes ago, stryve said:

Any reason it was hit quite that hard?

 

AoE chain power now instead of a ST heavy hitter.

[Mezmera]

31 minutes ago, High_Beam said:

Okay got the two DP Blasters, one DP Corr and 1 DP Sent over.  30 minutes of back and forth fighting same mobs on Excelsior and Brainstorm and I am super not liking the overall changes to Suppressive Fire.  I need to put the numbers together and compose my thoughts into something truly practical because I am kind of angry now as to why this was even done and how it has fundamentally rendered the power combat ineffective for what it is supposed to be😠.  You will need to rename it to something more appropriate, like say "Plinking"💩.  Seriously I need to sleep on this.

 

 

Yes totally agree.  It's not like it already does extreme damage with absurd dpa plus has optimal procability like a lot of the other holds out there.  Any unique stuff you could do with DP with this power in particular has been washed out and now you're shoehorned into a smorgasbord of low dpa attacks.  

 

The change to Piercing Rounds not having the -resistance debuff stackable anymore is irksome a bit but usually you're going to want to use fire or chem ammo anyway so it puts this power into play for you.  Between the animation time and lets say a 3-4s recharge you'd only ever at best get that -res to stack for a few seconds.  

 

All in all Piercing Rounds I'm fine with but the Suppressive Fire was a bread and butter attack if you set it up right.  I'll play my DP blaster a lot less now but my defender won't be phased by it.  

[Booper]

1 hour ago, High_Beam said:

Okay got the two DP Blasters, one DP Corr and 1 DP Sent over. 

For clarity, can you tell us how you slotted Suppressive Fire for your testing?

[Mezmera]

20 minutes ago, Booper said:

For clarity, can you tell us how you slotted Suppressive Fire for your testing?

 

I would assume they slotted it for damage to test it out before even identifying the set they'd want to put in there if they were going to keep this attack.  I put in 2 50+5 dmg IO's and 2 50+5 Acc just to test it since it seems the goal is to eliminate procing for internal moderate damage.  

 

I'd assume how they have it originally slotted would be comparative to how I have it slotted on my blaster which is all procs, Unbreakable Constraint, Apocalypse, Neuronic Shutdown, Ghost Widow, Gladiator Javelin and I like the Decimation proc 6th to amp up my damage for other attacks since DP doesn't have a Build Up type of power.  

[MoonSheep]

10 hours ago, Parabola said:

Very excited to have a play with AR and Psychic Blast - I have concepts that have been waiting for those revamps for a very long time :).

 

If we're looking at Dark Blast would it be possible to give some attention to the way the cones line up?

 

 

 

 

i echo these thoughts. a bit of love for dark blast has been needed for quite some time. i want to love it, but it’s currently quite a poor set

[ForeverLaxx]

All this back-and-forth about Ignite vs Incinerate and I'm wondering if it's possible to roll them into a single power that makes both parties happy: summon an Ignite patch that damages enemies standing in it on top of hitting them with a non-self-stacking Incinerate DoT that gets its duration reset if they continue to stand in the Ignite. Obviously damage numbers would have to be modified for this and the Incinerate DoT would end up outlasting the Ignite patch duration, but that can be sorted out later. No, this doesn't "fix" the Terror problem with Ignite but it at least would still apply the current implementation of Incinerate to them while also further rewarding players who do manage to keep an enemy inside the Ignite patch.

 

That said, I don't even know if such a thing is possible in the game code. I know there are patches that do more than one thing to the target inside. I know there are patches that hit enemies with a lingering effect that lasts even after they leave a patch or it despawns. I just don't know if the ability exists for a zone patch power to provide two different sources of damage to an enemy at the same time.

[Gobbledigook]

 The Blaster 102.6 damage version of Mental Blast has much better damage than the Sentinel 61.17 damage or Defender 47.71 damage versions which does not seem right. Activation time could be lowered for all versions a little also, similar to other newer sets/reworks.

 

Blaster version of Fire Blast 84.72 damage, Defender Fire Blast 48.95 damage , Sentinel Fire Blast 92.63 damage.

Edited April 6, 2023 by Gobbledigook

[nihilii]

3 hours ago, ForeverLaxx said:

All this back-and-forth about Ignite vs Incinerate and I'm wondering if it's possible to roll them into a single power that makes both parties happy: summon an Ignite patch that damages enemies standing in it on top of hitting them with a non-self-stacking Incinerate DoT that gets its duration reset if they continue to stand in the Ignite. Obviously damage numbers would have to be modified for this and the Incinerate DoT would end up outlasting the Ignite patch duration, but that can be sorted out later. No, this doesn't "fix" the Terror problem with Ignite but it at least would still apply the current implementation of Incinerate to them while also further rewarding players who do manage to keep an enemy inside the Ignite patch.

 

That said, I don't even know if such a thing is possible in the game code. I know there are patches that do more than one thing to the target inside. I know there are patches that hit enemies with a lingering effect that lasts even after they leave a patch or it despawns. I just don't know if the ability exists for a zone patch power to provide two different sources of damage to an enemy at the same time.

This reads like the sensible solution. Isn't this sort of how Burn works, anyway? Upfront damage + patch. Change the "upfront damage" to "DoT" and you've got an Ignite that's fun and useful.

[High_Beam]

6 hours ago, Booper said:

For clarity, can you tell us how you slotted Suppressive Fire for your testing?

Yeah.  Like I said, I will get my data up in a bit which includes the slotting on each . . . just woke up and coffee isn't quite done on the IV drip 🙂

 

Edited April 6, 2023 by High_Beam

[Gobbledigook]

Why not turn ignite into a single target or even 3 target narrow cone dot (similar to piercing rounds) which causes fear? They run around trying to put the flames out.

 

Btw i do like the new AR changes.

Edited April 6, 2023 by Gobbledigook

[twozerofoxtrot]

12 hours ago, ApatheticWizard said:

Mental Blast being the t1 and Will Dom returning to being a higher tier blast I think is the better solution as well. As it is right now even on Live I skip Mental Blast for Psionic Dart simply because it is better filler between my other attacks.

 

Something to consider that I posted elsewhere, copied over from there:

 

Quote

The changes to Will Dom and making it a T1 with a Mag 3 sleep with a 4sec CD have big implications for solo Psi Blasters. Smart players can use Defiance to cast this while CCd to quickly lock down opponents that might threaten them, and hopefully fish out a Defiant Barrage Proc. Or just opt for more damage with Mental Blast, but now there's some diversity in the choice.

 

[twozerofoxtrot]

Very minor but after a quick respec, looks like this fun little guy is back: 

[golstat2003]

14 hours ago, powerofvoid said:

As a fan of the idea of a "Psychic Blast" powerset, I think the changes sound pretty cool.

Probably not enough to make it one of the best sets, but the AoE attacks besides Psychic Wail might not make me feel bad for taking them anymore.

Two things the notes don't mention:

• What is the damage scale on Sentinel Scramble Thoughts being changed to? I think it was already higher than 1.0
• Does this mean that Blaster Psychic Focus is being moved up from T4 to T5?

 

"Idea" .  . . I see what you did there. LOL

[Gobbledigook]

HIT Behemoth Overlord! Your Full Auto power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 48.66.
You hit Behemoth Overlord with your Full Auto for 52.84 points of Lethal damage over time.
You hit Behemoth Overlord with your Offensive Adaptation for 21.84 points of Toxic damage.
You hit Behemoth Overlord with your Full Auto for 52.84 points of Lethal damage over time.
You hit Behemoth Overlord with your Full Auto for 52.84 points of Lethal damage over time.
You hit Behemoth Overlord with your Full Auto for 52.84 points of Lethal damage over time.
You hit Behemoth Overlord with your Full Auto for 52.84 points of Lethal damage over time.
You hit Behemoth Overlord with your Full Auto for 52.84 points of Lethal damage over time.
You hit Behemoth Overlord with your Full Auto for 52.84 points of Lethal damage over time.
You hit Behemoth Overlord with your Full Auto for 52.84 points of Lethal damage over time.
You hit Behemoth Overlord with your Full Auto for 52.84 points of Lethal damage over time.
You hit Behemoth Overlord with your Full Auto for 52.84 points of Lethal damage over time.
You hit Behemoth Overlord with your Full Auto for 52.84 points of Lethal damage over time.

The extra damage coming from Offensive Adaptation dot seems very low indeed. Same with Flamethrower. Seems to apply on the first dot only. Is this correct?

[WindDemon21]

45 minutes ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

 

Something to consider that I posted elsewhere, copied over from there:

 

 

I'd still much prefer mental blast being 1s cast/4s rech tier 1 and will dom being a bigger heavy hit attack. At 1.1s cast it already had good dpa and fit in the chain quickly, and having tkblast move to the tier 2 spot (which it's recharge is already 8s iirc so it's already statted for it)

 

Regarding the "when mezzed" cycling part, they already really need to fix the ato proc to be mag 3 not mag 1even if not stackable to help prevent mezzes as it is(Mag 1 I'd atrociously bad and almost impossible to keep 3 stacks on for anh real protection). I'd rather they fix that first and leave mental blast in tier 1 with 1s cast. Then it should be something like:

 

1. Mental blast

2. Tk blast

3. Psy darts

4. Snipe

5. Psynado

6. Aim

7. Will dom

8. Scramble

9. Nuke