Officially Unofficial Weekly Discussion #28: Pew Pew Pew, Boom (A discussion of Blast Sets)

[SeraphimKensai]

Welcome back folks. Last week's discussion on melee seemed to get decent participation, so I wonder if this one can beat it? That's right we're talking ranged blasts.

 

Feel free to discuss, compare, and contrast any blast sets in the game. Do you have a preferred blast set you enjoy? Is there one that you don't like? What do you find enjoyable about playing blast sets? Is there anything that holds you back from playing blast sets? Do you have any suggestions for blast weapons such as a a squirt gun or shoulder mounted miniguns? Do you have any interesting thoughts for a new blast powerset? Do you find ranged to be in a good place now or does it need tuning?

 

As always thanks for playing.

[TheZag]

Regen blast,  heal your enemies and troll your friends.  Guaranteed to be a good time....until it gets nerfed.

 

[cranebump]

I prefer Blasters over every other AT, and really enjoy throwing together a good blapper (or even a bad one, as my faceplanting intimates). Recently ran a DP/Martial Assault, which turned out to be a ton of fun. And anything blasty with arrows is a fav (archery or tac arrow). 

 

Now (and as mentioned once before somewhere), if we can get rid of that big ass rock that covers the screen on Seismic Blast, that would be awesome. Keeps me from playing the set, tbh.

 

New Sets: what I really would like is a single weapon pistol set. Either that, or single pistol animations for the DP powers that are essentially using one gun. OR: a "pistol" pool power: Quick Draw, Aimed Shot, Fan the Hammer, and Pistol Whip. Thanks much, hombre.:-) 

 

And maybe we add a buttstock attack to the AR set? Like Arachnos soldiers get?

Edited May 17, 2023 by cranebump

[0th Power]

Energy blast is my favorite set in the game.  I know it isn't the greatest, but the KB is fun.  I tend to only slot the -KB IOs in the range AoEs (no need for single target and why would you want to ruin the KB on nova???).  The one thing I would change would be change it from a chance to KB to KB.  (Do any other secondary effects other than KB occur at random?)  And please Please PLEASE, don't add a gimmick to energy blast!

 

Random thoughts for the other sets

Fire - great set

Ice - great set

Rad - eh...

Dark - never got it very high, may try it again someday

Beam - not enough aoe

water - too gimmicky

electricity - never got into it

AR - new updates make it better, aim woulda been nice

archery - never tried it

dual pistol - never tried it because of stupid animations

seismic - couldnt get into it. Also, its meteorite, not meteor...

sonic - never tried it

storm blast - great new set, lot of fun

 

New set I would love to see is my reimagined assault rifle, aka Battle Rifle

 

Edited May 17, 2023 by 0th Power
Link added

[tidge]

Dual Pistols: Sometimes I love the look of it... but sometimes I feel the flourish is over-the-top. I can't play the set while the dog (who hates fireworks) is around.

 

Dark: I rather like it. I think what appeals to me about it is that it is a pretty mellow basic blast set.

 

Water: Crazy good as an AoE set for Blappers. The recent 'fix' for Tidal Power addressed what I saw as the only real negative (having accepted there is no Snipe), although I'm still not taking Water Jet. With Water Jet not available as part of an attack chain, the Tidal Power gimmick is far less important than just the build-up bonuses.

[UltraAlt]

1 hour ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Do you have a preferred blast set you enjoy?

 

I would have to say that Ice and Dual pistols have been my go-to's as of late.

I also like Energy and assault rifle, but I'm a character conception player so I've ended up making more ice and dual pistol.

 

Of course, there is Storm Blast - which I feel is a bit OP. 

I've built 3 recently because they are the FOTM. 2 for teaming with my usual teammates and one for use with PUGing. 

2 character conceptions spawning off the same basic character with different power sets (one moving off of Ice Blast to Storm Blast and one moving from Water Blast and Electrical Blast to Storm Blast)

1 new character conception that I had a basic idea of what I wanted to do powerwise, but didn't have a solid character conception until some randomizing and tweaking in the character creator (as per usually, I had a fleshed-out version of the character and bio done before leaving the character creator and entering THE CITY).

 

I have fun with Archery, but they tend to get looked down on by teams.

 

1 hour ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Is there one that you don't like?

 

Not really, but as indicated above ... I think that archery is looked down upon by teams.

Maybe it is just a gut feeling that I have. 
I have fun playing archers just as much as any other blast set.

 

1 hour ago, SeraphimKensai said:

What do you find enjoyable about playing blast sets?

 

I just enjoy playing the game in general.

Power sets and powers really don't make a huge amount of difference to me.

 

I jump characters quite a bit, but I guess a favorite blast mix of late is one where I can have ? Blast and martial arts. I have a lot of fun using ki push to soft hold enemies and or pin them to a wall and alternate blasts on them between autofire ki pushes. I really like the bullet-time animation on ki push as well.

 

1 hour ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Do you have any suggestions for blast weapons such as a a squirt gun or shoulder mounted miniguns?

 

I'm unsure if you are talking about new power sets or power customization.

 

I'm thinking a squirt gun would just be a power customization for water blast; shoulder mounted mini-guns for dual pistols and, possibly, assault rifle.

 

I've posted it before, but I would like to see a shuriken power customization for archery. Blazing arrow substitutes in the Molotov cocktail from the thug mastermind minions. Explosive arrow to a hand grenade.  Stunning shot to ninja smoke bomb.

 

A pistol power customization for beam rifle would be cool.

 

Wands and staffs have often been brought up for blast power customization. I can't argue with either of those for the mystically inclined.

 

I could see power customization for ice, fire, and sonic with a pistol or rifle.

 

So ... this lead me to think about chest blasts. I mean, we have some eye beam attacks, but no chest blasts like ...

 

 

... but quickly that turned into looking for the blast set for ...

 

 

2 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Do you have any interesting thoughts for a new blast powerset?

 

GIANT ROBOTS!!!

 

 

No lie, I've been a giant robot fan since before Transformers made it big States-side.

So there are a bunch of stuff that would be fun for giant robots, but I know we are sticking more to Western side comics for the most part ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

... but back to Mazinger Z  as a set option....

 

I'm not expecting the City of Jack Kirby Giants were these giant mecha would fit in, but just human sized versions.

 

That Microman/Micronauts could fit in.

 

(Yes, The Microman action figures fit inside of the Kaiju costumes for Megalon and Jet Jaguar!)

 

 

 

The rocket fists are cool and would just reappear on the character when the power was recharged - versus flying around and reattaching which is cool as Thor's hammer returning to Thor after he throws it....

 

 

 

 

Smaller multi-fire arm-stump rockets...

 

 

Chest blast

 

 

Rust Hurricane aka Atomic Hurricane

 

 

I can understand bypassing the Mazinger crotch rocket ...

 

 

...  not to be confused with rockets that Aphrodite A carries (which should be bypassed as well...

 

 

 

... ah, well, it is not to be, but still, even so ......

 

3 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Do you find ranged to be in a good place now or does it need tuning?

 

I think they are fine.

I hear some complaints about the range for sentinels, but they have armor to make up for the loss of range, and there are enhancement sets that can increase range.

 

3 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

As always thanks for playing.

 

thanks for leading these discussions.

[lemming]

Archery	Fun set, have a couple blasters and a sentinal
Assault Rifle	Just rolled a blaster up with it, we'll see how it goes
Beam Rifle	This is one that seems better on a sentinel
Dark Blast	Haven't played it enough
Dual Pistols	Fun set, seems lacking on damage, but the fun makes up for it
Electrical Blast	One of my go to blasting sets.  The extra damage from drained end was a nice addition
Energy Blast	Not as much experience with it, but the one blaster with it leaned into the KB
Fire Blast	Probably my most used blast set.  My first character was a fire/fire blaster and now I go between fire/fire fire/time and fire/MA
Ice Blast	I haven't done this one yet
Psychic Blast	Not the most exciting, but does have the advantage of huge range
Radiation Blast	My favorite sentinel has this, and it's a lot of fun
Seismic Blast	Another I leaned into the KB of meteor.   I preferred on a blaster, since the only survivors were the bosses who could then be hunted down.  Extra fun in perez park where a minion will need a spotter to find.
Sonic Attack	I did run a blaster and it wasn't bad, just not my style
Storm Blast	Still playing around with it.  Seeing the potential with a corrupter and I do have a lowbie sentinel
Water Blast	Almost as fun as a fire blaster.

 

At least my thoughts on current sets.  

[rolandgrey]

I built WAY too many Assault Rifle characters.  I got to the point I started wishing we had DIFFERENT AR powersets, like one for shotguns, one for flamethrowers, one for machineguns or other military rifles.  While I still kind of feel that way, I also think it could be done so that you could just expand the current Assault Rifle set to include a wider range of powers and that selecting some preclude others...  Buuuuuuuuut...  I've been told that's a headache and a half to program, so I'm not holding my breath.  For now, I'll just deal with it by making characters that focus on one type or another.  Snipers?  They use single-target attacks for the most part.  They still use Full Auto, because...  It's the Tier 9 of AR.  When it comes to Blasting sets, you do NOT ignore the Tier 9.  I've got one character that has forgone all of the flame attacks, and actually feels like a proper soldier as a result.  Another character uses almost all of the attacks, I just handwave the flamethrower as "venting plasma."  About the only power I dislike is the M30 Grenade.  It has WAY too low damage for its endurance cost.  I've had all sorts of characters that had endurance issues before I removed the M30 Grenade from their build and suddenly they were far more survivable, they could keep up in the fights better, their food got better, I don't know what it is about the M30 Grenade, but it just drags everything down.

 

Dual Pistols is just plain fun.  It's like the Paragon Devs watched Equilibrium and went "That.  The set has to look like the ending corridor run."

 

Seismic Blast...  When I first watched the rock fall and everyone died, I just HAD to take it against enemies that were way too underleveled.  I went to Striga Isle, where I knew I would find large groups of enemies and the first thing I did was bombard a swamp full of zombies.  I speared them into the trees!  They didn't even bother animating their rising to battle, they just stuck there, dead.  I have since had other hilarious moments, including one where I slammed Akarist into the ceiling while he was in mid-rant.  I watched his text bubble slide along the contours of the roof before he plopped mostly dead at the mouth of the cave.  I was laughing so hard my friends had to finish him off.  All other aspects of this set are great, too.

 

Archery is pretty straightforward.  You pull out a bow and shoot a bunch of arrows at your enemies.  Despite its largely disappointing visuals, the set still hits as hard as any other blast set.  It just looks like it's lacking impact, leading to a surprising realization that all of your enemies are dead and full of arrows.  It's still funny when the arrows are used against larger enemies, turning them suddenly into arrows hewn from tree limbs or whole tree trunks (such as when you shoot giant monsters).

 

Beam Rifle wasn't quite what people were expecting when it first came out.  A lot were expecting an expansion of the Pulse Rifle from Robotics Masterminds.  Instead, we got a heavy combat version of the Ghostbuster Neutrona Wand.  Why?  Because MAD SCIENCE, that's why.  The Pulse Rifle is lasers, light that hurts.  That's boring compared to throwing fire from your fingertips, lightning from your butt or a big rock from the sky.  What do you use to compare?  Why a Beam Rifle that looks like the energy cascading out of it is dangerously unstable, that's how!

 

Dark Blast suffers the same problem as Archery.  It's perfectly functional, but largely unimpressive.  It does have some helpful effects (-ToHit per hit and it stacks, some powers that knock enemies down or immobilize them), but it's all so blunt.  Compared to the frenetic behavior of other sets, this one just doesn't leave a big impression.

 

Fire Blast has the same problem as Dark, just without the utility.  You throw fire at enemies.  It doesn't knock them down.  They keep attacking, they keep charging you, they keep being a problem.  Fire doesn't slow them down, it doesn't stop them, it doesn't do anything any of the other sets do.  How does it mitigate?  Like every other fire powerset in this game: DAMAGE.  Even things that would normally be resistant to Fire fall to the hard ball that is Fire Blast.  Fire pumps out the damage because it can't stop them any other way.

 

I suppose you could recolor Fire Blast and Dark Blast to make them pop a bit.

 

Ice Blast, however, makes players think they accidentally slapped together a controller.  Two holds, and a boatload of slow.  Don't let it fool you, either, because most of the non-hold powers still do severe damage (skip Ice Bolt; minor damage powers are largely irrelevant) and Blizzard is scary the way it just makes enemies drop.

 

Electrical Blast would be in the same boat as the other bland powers except for one thing: Endurance Drain.  Sure, it recently got an update from the HC devs, but Electrical Blast fulfills the promise that the Fighting Pool keeps making (and failing to live up to).  Electrical Blast DRAINS THE ENERGY OUT OF YOUR ENEMIES.  You can get to a point where your enemies CANNOT fight back.  They just stand there, staring at you, silently begging you to stop pummeling them.  If they could get just 1 Endurance, they'd be able to stab or shoot you, but no, the Electric Blast character is still shooting them like a Gear on crack, keeping their endurance stuck firmly at ZERO.  It's not often you see this happen with just one Electrical Blast character, but with two?  Quite often.  Three?  VERY often.  More?  Almost always.  It's a beautiful thing when most of the team is hurling lightning at the enemies and they just look on in abject terror as one of the most hated enemy attacks is turned against them.

 

Energy Blast was the first blast I ever used, all the way back in 2006.  It hits hard.  It hits so hard, it's throwing enemies all over the place.  Unlike a lot of players, I LIKE knockback.  It's really entertaining.  It's FUN.  Max DPS is boring.  Max DPS gaming is "I'm trying to maximize gains for a minimum of effort.  I am turning my leisure activity into MATH HOMEWORK."  TO HELL WITH THAT KIND OF THINKING!  I want to knock enemies around.  I want to watch them pirouette through the air, silently screaming as they anticipate the pain to come before they wrap around a railing and I punt them through the slats and shoot them again.  Energy Blast is emblematic of the classic comic book characters who shoot cosmic rays and blast their enemies through the walls or just blast holes through them.  Who cares if the Scrapper is whining that he has to chase some of them down?  You're not playing a lump that sits down and radiates spikes!  You're -oh wait, you're a Spines/Dark Scrapper...  Well, you know what?  You need the exercise.  Go chase that guy I blasted down the hall.

 

Radiation Blast is the bright version of Dark Blast, and it lacks an immobilize power.  The snipe is fun, because it's basically Star Trek TOS's Photon Torpedoes (it's even using the same sound effect!).  A gamebreaker once gave me some really useful advice for my Empathy/Radiation Defender back in the Paragon Days.  Since I HAD to use Neutrino Bolt, I may as well make it useful.  Slap an Achilles Heel PROC in it instead of a damage and it will VASTLY improve the damage output of all the other attacks.  Why?  Because you will be throwing Neutrino Bolts at enemies like it's candy, and that PROC hits A LOT.  Suddenly your Defender is ripping large chunks out of the enemy.  Wow.  I haven't done this with a Radiation Blast Blaster, Corrupter or Sentinel yet, but I imagine the effect can only be even more pronounced.

 

On that note...  Sonic Attack.  Screaming at the enemy.  It's also reducing their damage resistance, and it's not a small effect.  Still...  It's visually uninteresting.  It can also put enemies to sleep, stun them, knock them down, but in the end you don't care, because the air ripples and you're done.  Bleh.

 

Water Blast is weird and fun and it's funny watching the splash graphics.  It's got the builder mechanics to make certain powers do different things.  It can be somewhat clunky, but it's still a lot of fun "flushing" enemies before water spouting them into the ceiling.

 

Storm Blast, I'm still getting used to.  It's a bit clunky because its powers are different things, which means the blaster is going through different motions and there doesn't seem to be much flow between the attacks.  On top of that, it requires heavy use of its pseudo pet to get the most out of it and it's really weird having a Tier 9 power that needs to be fed to get it to do the most damage possible.

 

Finally, Psychic Blast.  I like this set...  But I feel like it's lying to me.  A lot of the attacks feel like they're hitting softer than they advertise.  Despite the "vulnerability" of enemies across the game, psychic attacks just seem to be batting them with pillows compared to what the other powersets do.  Fortunately, the set has a lot of utility and allows for a lot of soft control.  Finally, it's STILL a fantastic thing to use against enemies that use Tier 9 defensives, because practically NONE of them deflect or mitigate psychic damage.  Strength of Will, from Willpower, can withstand it, but none of the NPCs use it.  It's fun boring a hole through Marauder's brain in "The Anti-Matter Collision" arc, where despite the improvements made to Invulnerability, Marauder is STILL vulnerable to Psychic damage.

 

Now, for a suggestion, I would love to see a Throwing Weapons set.  We've already got the parts of one scattered throughout the game.  Shuriken from the Scrapper Weapon Mastery Ancillary.  Shurikens (which is three smaller ones compared to the big Fuma Shuriken from Weapon Mastery), Trick Shot, Masterful Throw and Explosive Shuriken from Martial Assault for Dominators.  I prefer the Dominator Exploding Shuriken animation because it just reeks of style, but it would be nice if it had a REAL AOE effect rather than the "splash" version it gets.  It could also take the Shockwave from Claws, as that power includes a weird thrown object in it as well.  Really, the one thing the set would be missing would be a decent Tier 9, which could be something like "Falling Stars" and it could be a directional cone (where your character is facing when you activate, not who they're targeting) of throwing a series of shurikens.  Or maybe it would just be an up-gunned Shockwave, I don't know.

 

But there's my twenty cents.

[Snarky]

I have been playing a lot of Blast sets and even taking a few Blasters through a lot of TFs of various levels.

1) Fire Blast.  Just incredible.  But the higher you go in the game the more exact you have ti be.  When you live on the edge it is exciting 

 

2). Meteor.  Such a fun whomp.  But overall it does nit stand out for me.  And the rocky animations are just too much.  So well done, but so constant 

 

3) Ice.  Such an oddball.  I love it.  But it never quite feels like I am blasting.  More like a controller who figured out the cheat code for doing damage

 

4) Assault Rifle. So good now.  If they made the animations from shoulder and back mounted weapon systems I could play a miniature giant mech.  Long time goal.  But AR Traps feels like a working Blaster finally. Build for range

 

5) Dark. I love you.  You are so dam odd.  Just a odd Blaster.  Dark Dark Corr prob gas the most dynamic pairing of the Dark ATs.  But i am Dark Dark Blasting right now. I am starting from the ground up.  First you must forget.  Then relook at each power and usefulness. My time on Seismic and Fire have me thinking much more aggressively.  I like cones but you have to get creative with them.  I build for + range and get +34-45%.  Dark Dark Soul has 4 cones and the extra coverage is gold. 

[KC4800]

My main blaster is Radiation/Mental. He has only the ranged rad attacks, except for the nuke. No cone, no targeted AoE. He softens them up with range then finishes off with Mental attacks. Very satisfying blapper-y style. I also play Sonic/TacArrow, AR/Devices, Dark/Martial.

Defenders: Kin/Elec blast; Rad/Water blast, Storm/Storm blast Rad/Water is favorite, Storm/storm is growing on me.

Corruptors: Ice/FF, Energy/Traps. Energy/Traps is favorite. I have colored all the attacks differently and love the KB but do not use Power Push or Nova choosing instead Trip Mine for theme.

Sentinal: BeamRifle/Ninjitsu. Psychic/Regen Psy blast has a devastating high damage blast that also stuns. (rad blast as well, for that matter) which is why I didn't understand why the devs couldn't make Slug from AR also do stun. Then they could have dropped Beanbag and added Aim and made everyone happy. I just don't get it.

I stay away from Archery, but I use Trick Arrow and Tac Arrow. Seismic Blast I do not like visually. Fire blast I played on live and have no desire to play on HC.

[Uun]

Global comment: Back on live, the T1 and T2 powers in the blaster primaries were normalized to all have the same damage scale and recharge (1.0 dmg/4.0 sec rech and 1.64 dmg/8.0 sec rech). These changes were not proliferated to defenders or corruptors (but were proliferated to sentinels). As a result, there are a number of sets where the T1 and T2 powers have different damage scales and recharges on defenders and corruptors. In Rad Blast these powers are 0.6 dmg/1.5 sec rech and 1.0 dmg/4.0 sec rech. In Archery they are 0.68 dmg/2.0 sec rech and 1.0 dmg/4.0 sec rech. I haven't checked exhaustively, but this situation also exists to varying degrees in Fire, Psy and Sonic. For the sake of consistency, I'd like to see the blaster/sentinel damage scales and recharges proliferated to defenders and corruptors.

 

Archery: I've played this on blasters, corruptors and defenders. It's OK but it feels unexciting to me. I'd like to see more of the attacks get a secondary effect aside from higher accuracy. Currently the only attacks that do are Explosive Arrow (KB) and Blazing Arrow (DoT). 

 

Assault Rifle: Played this on live on a Traps/AR defender. Don't really remember it.

 

Beam Rifle: Have only played this on a Cold/Beam defender. I quite like the set but it could use another AoE.

 

Dark Blast: There are too many versions of this set. Blasters, defenders/corruptors and sentinels all have different powers. I'd like to see it standardized across all ATs, preferably with the blaster or sentinel version. I won't play the defender/corrupter version - too many garbage powers.

 

Dual Pistols: Have only played on a blaster. It's fun, but the performance isn't outstanding. 

 

Electric: Haven't played.

 

Energy: Played an En/En blaster on live from I3 to sunset, but haven't rolled one on HC. Decent middle of the road set. Embrace the KB.

 

Fire: Great set.

 

Ice: Probably my favorite. I've played this on an Ice/Temp blaster and an Ice/Kin corruptor.

 

Psychic: Haven't really played this as a blast set, but I do have a Psi Assault dom. Psi is the least resisted damage type until it's the most resisted. Fighting a room full of robots is painful. I'm also not a fan of the SFX.

 

Radiation: I've played this on defenders, corruptors and sentinels. I find it to be a fun utilitarian set, but the animation on Electron Haze and the projectile travel time on Neutron Bomb need some love. Lots of proc opportunities.

 

Seismic: Have only played this on a Nature/Seismic defender, but I really like the set. The Seismic Pressure mechanic isn't too gimmicky and it offers lots of proc opportunities.

 

Sonic: Have played this on a blaster and two defenders. Recent buffs improved the set greatly, but you really have to love cones.

 

Storm: Haven't played.

 

Water: Great set and a lot of fun. I find the Tidal Power mechanic works well.

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

22 hours ago, TheZag said:

Regen blast,  heal your enemies and troll your friends.  Guaranteed to be a good time....until it gets nerfed.

 

Now with extra knockback!

[0th Power]

8 hours ago, rolandgrey said:

You're not playing a lump that sits down and radiates spikes!  You're -oh wait, you're a Spines/Dark Scrapper...  Well, you know what?  You need the exercise.  Go chase that guy I blasted down the hall.

🤣

[Greycat]

I've tended to enjoy ranged sets more than melee, honestly. First 50 was an elec/elec blaster back in i3, so...

 

I've run most of them up to 50 at some point, other than Assault Rifle (which just doesn't fit many concepts for me - I still *have* them, they just don't get played much) and Storm, which I haven't rolled up yet (no character concepts.)

 

Of them? I'm not sure I have a favourite, since they can feel quite different on AT and paired with different things. For the same reason, there's not one I like least, really, but if I had to pick *anything,* it'd be dual pistols... specifically for all the flippy animations. I'd love an alternate "yes, I'm going to shoot you and be serious about it" set of animations - there are a few in there that are just great sometimes that *aren't* tossing the guns in the air, and I find the "Stand there in the middle of a fight, calmly line up the target and fire" to look much cooler than "spin, drop, backflip, toss in air, pirouette, catch and fire off everywhere."

 

... Yet I still have several of them.

 

Only other one I've ever had points of *not* enjoying was psi blast... specifically because of missions that are robot-heavy (or having to fight Nocturne on an Emp/Psi defender...) You ever want the hit-a-brick-wall-with-your-face feeling of "Your damage is resisted - not everyone's, JUST YOURS," get a mission full of robots while playing psi blast. Especially when it's too early to have had much slotted anywhere.

 

Are they in a good place... I think so. *shrug* I'm not a numbers person, but I don't feel I have to make up for anything while playing them or MUST try to make up for lack of performance with slotting. (As opposed to "slotting will generically make any set better.")

[lemming]

10 hours ago, rolandgrey said:

Seismic Blast...  When I first watched the rock fall and everyone died, I just HAD to take it against enemies that were way too underleveled.  I went to Striga Isle, where I knew I would find large groups of enemies and the first thing I did was bombard a swamp full of zombies.  I speared them into the trees!  They didn't even bother animating their rising to battle, they just stuck there, dead.  I have since had other hilarious moments, including one where I slammed Akarist into the ceiling while he was in mid-rant.  I watched his text bubble slide along the contours of the roof before he plopped mostly dead at the mouth of the cave.  I was laughing so hard my friends had to finish him off.  All other aspects of this set are great, too.

My favorite golf area is Perez, though Hollows would probably be good.   Full set of Force Feedback and KB boost from the empowerment station. 😄

[Skyhawke]

I'm more a melee player with toes dipped into support ATs from time to time. It was my Thermal/Dual Pistols defender that made me make a Pistols blaster and it ended up being a ton of fun. Pistols/Time made me finally understand the love of the Blapper.

[Go0gleplex]

I tend to favor Electric, Fire, Rad, and Dark though Storm is making a real favorable impression so far. Seismic animation just turned me off and it was slow to my perception. The rest of 'em I've dabbled with but didn't last 10 levels before the 'meh' factor had me move on.  Then again I play pretty much strictly solo...so that can factor into what one gets out of a set as well.

 

 

[Spaghetti Betty]

I don't have too many ranged toons, and far fewer make the whole journey to 50. I couldn't tell you what finally makes a ranged toon click for me, and I'll even say there are way more strong ranged sets than there are weak ones.

 

So far, I've 50'd toons with Dark Blast, Rad Blast, Energy Blast, Assault Rifle, and Sonic Blast. They are all fantastic! Each one fills a particular gameplay style I'm looking for.

 

It's a pretty obvious pick, but I feel the one ranged powerset we're missing is a Power Armor-style set with wrist blasters, chest beams, and shoulder cannons. Crab Soldiers are almost there, but are still very specific in their functionality.

[carroto]

On 5/18/2023 at 9:44 AM, Uun said:

I'd like to see the blaster/sentinel damage scales and recharges proliferated to defenders and corruptors.

 

This more than anything.  Rad Blast is so bad on Corruptors.

 

Also if I could get the Blaster version of Dark Blast on Corruptors that would make my year.

Edited May 19, 2023 by carroto

[honoroit]

i just want an invisible option for beam rifle, way they are the gun comes out of the top of prism models for 'rikti gunner' diagonally, so you cant use it without looking daft, and the inbuilt arm gun looks really unique. 

[DougGraves]

I don't play blasters.  I have blast sets on defenders.  So sonic is my go to.  I use fire and dual pistols on a few characters.

[Troo]

I prefer ranged with some control.

Corruptors have a nice balance for me.

 

More diversity between blast sets is good. Not every blast set needs meet some common layout of samey range, samey sized cones and aoes.

 

If knock back did damage based on knock back distance or velocity, it alone could open up some interesting new blast metas.

 

Similarly with endurance drain. If flooring endurance did something it could be really interesting.

 

 

 

Edited May 21, 2023 by Troo

[Troo]

Request: Ridiculous titan sized heavy armaments.

 

[gamingglen]

If the set does not have a Sniper attack I'm not interested. 

I do like the ice set for themes, but... no snipe.

 

I like the animation of Rad's Proton Volley, but not that the enemy can shoot back between the first and second pulse because mobs have instant reaction. Perhaps replace the -Defense (doesn't do much if the mob dies from the attack) with a high-magnitude stun with a very short duration to stop that? 

[drbuzzard]

I never got around to responding to this (didn't read the whole thread either so if I'm repeating, forgive me). 

 

However I thought my idea was worth adding. I had an idea of a new blast set. 

 

Thrown Weapon - I have some ideas for powers, but have not fleshed out the whole set idea. 

 

1. quick toss - use a fast backhand animation, keep the damage OK though. Many sets have a tier 1 which is pure garbage, and it would be nice not to have it that way again. As storm avoided this I expect the Devs now get that DPAS is important and make sure the attacks are all at least decent. 

 

X. Strong throw- use the impale animation for pretty high damage (would have to be to make impale damage have good DPAS). 

 

Y. fan of grenades- not really sure how to do this but the idea to toss a spread of explosives that detonate on hitting the ground. I'm not sure if this would be a pain to code, but it's mostly just a special effect. 

 

There's plenty of options here for different ideas. I guess I am a bit too late though.