Focused Feedback: Snipes and Dominator changes

[Leandro]

Powers - Snipes

• General Changes
  • ToHit is no longer required to achieve fast-snipe. Now, combat status determines if snipes are fast or slow, and ToHit buffs increase how much damage fast-snipe inflicts.
  • The snipe will be fast if you have attacked or been attacked in the last 8 seconds; this is the same time as Stalker's Hide.
  • Note that PvP scale is based only around the PvP damage formula. ToHit buffs and debuffs do not change quick snipe damage in PvP.
  • The following fast snipe animations have been synced with their FX, no cast time changes: Moonbeam, Zapp, Sniper Blast, Proton Volley (they all remain at their original 1.33 second duration.)
  • Added a new PVP IO Snipe set "Experienced Marksman"; includes proc that will always turn your Snipes into the fast version.
• Blaster/Defender/Corruptor Snipes
  • 12 second recharge and 14.352 end cost.
  • Base 2.28 scale damage in their "quick" form, down from 2.76 scale.
  • Every point of ToHit buffing the player has will increase or decrease this damage, up to a cap of 2.76 scale damage with +22% ToHit buff.
  • Slow form will do 4.5 scale damage.
• Dominator Snipes
  • 20 second recharge and 18.512 end cost.
  • Base 2.67 scale damage in their "quick" form, down from 3.56 scale.
  • Every point of ToHit buffing the player has will increase or decrease this damage, up to a cap of 3.56 scale damage with +22% ToHit buff.
  • Slow form will do 4.5 scale damage.
• Epic Snipes
  • Will now have a base 1.75 scale damage in their quick form.
  • Every point of ToHit buffing the player has will increase or decrease this damage, up to a cap of 2.3 scale damage with +22% ToHit buff.
  • Slow form will do 3.56 scale damage
  • Slow form crits will do 3.56 + 1.78 scale damage.
  • Scrappers should now properly crit 10% of the time, instead of using Stalker requirements.

Powers - Dominator Assault Sets

• Earth Assault
  • Power Boost is now Power Up. (90s recharge, +34% damage, +75% str to other effects for 10 seconds.)
  • Stone Spears: Cast time reduced from 2.10 seconds to 1.00 second.
  • Tremor: Cast time reduced from 3.30 to 2.50 seconds.
  • Hurl Boulder: Cast time reduced from 2.50 seconds to 1.50 second. Recharge increased from 8 seconds to 12 seconds. Damage increased from 86.64 to 120.5 damage.
  • Heavy Mallet: Recharge increased from 12 to 14 seconds. Damage increased from 133.1 to 151.8 damage.
• Energy Assault
  • Power Boost is now Power Up. (90s recharge, +34% damage, +75% str to other effects for 10 seconds.)
  • Total Focus: Cast time shortened from 3.30 to 2.50 seconds.
  • Power Burst: Cast time shortened from 2.00 to 1.67 seconds.
• Icy Assault
  • Power Boost is now Power Up. (90s recharge, +34% damage, +75% str to other effects for 10 seconds.)
  • Ice Bolt: Recharge increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds. Damage increased from 52.9 to 61.3 damage.
  • Ice Sword: Recharge increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds. Damage increased from 95.8 to 114.5 damage.
  • Ice Slash: Recharge increased from 10 to 20 seconds. Damage increased from 114.5 to 207.8 damage.
• Psionic Assault
  • Psionic Dart: Cast time reduced from 1.33 to 0.83 seconds.
  • Telekinetic Thrust: Cast time reduced from 2.07 to 1.00 seconds.
• Radioactive Assault
  • Contaiminated Strike: Recharge increased from 5 seconds to 8 seconds. Damage increased from 67.7 to 95.7 damage.
  • X-Ray Beam: Recharge from 10 seconds to 11 seconds. Damage increased from 103.5 to 112.0 damage.
  • Devastating Blow: Recharge 18 seconds to 20 seconds. Damage increased from 189.2 to 207.9
• Savage Assault
  • Spot Prey: This power now grants +68% damage buff and +17 Tohit. Before: +42.5% damage buff and +42.5 ToHit. No longer grants a perception buff.
  • Vicious Slash: Recharge increased from 9 seconds to 11 seconds. Damage increased from 105.1 to 123.8 damage.
  • Call Hawk: Recharge increased from 12 seconds to 15 seconds. Damage increased accordingly (variable damage, aprox +14.4% damage increase.)
• Martial Assault
  • Envenomed Blades: Fixed a bug where this power would sometimes proc more than once.
  • Thunder Kick: Recharge lowered from 8 seconds to 6 seconds. Damage lowered from 95.8 to 77.1 damage.
  • Trick Shot is now a proper chain attack, hits up to 10 targets.
  • Spinning Kick: Target cap reduced to 5, same as all other melee cones. This power was also doing Single Target damage despite it being a cone. This has been fixed and damage has been lowered.
  • Explosive Shuriken should no longer state it's an AoE, but still will do splash fire dot damage to foes around the main target.
• Thorny Assault
  • Aim replaced with Build Up.
  • Skewer: Cast time reduced from 1.63 seconds to 0.83 seconds. Recharge time lowered from 10 seconds to 8 seconds. Damage lowered from 114.45 to 95.8 damage. Chance for DoT increased from 80% to 85%.
  • Impale: Cast time reduced from 2.43 seconds to 1.43 seconds. Recharge increased from 8 to 12 seconds. Damage increased from 86.6 to 120.5 damage.
  • Thorn Barrage: Recharge time increased from  11 to 14 seconds. Damage increased from 112 to 137 damage.

[Selenne]

Im kinda curious but why nerf blasters when its the brutes which are stupidly and horrendously overpowered and you see them farming maps day in day out? Wouldnt have been wiser to focus on that first?

[Vanden]

5 minutes ago, Selenne said:

Im kinda curious but why nerf blasters when its the brutes which are stupidly and horrendously overpowered and you see them farming maps day in day out? Wouldnt have been wiser to focus on that first?

Blasters haven't been nerfed.

Edited August 11, 2019 by Vanden

[Selenne]

2 minutes ago, Vanden said:

Blasters haven't been nerfed.

 

• Base 2.28 scale damage in their "quick" form, down from 2.76 scale.

I would say that is a nerf

[MechaMarshmallow]

Just now, Selenne said:

 

• Base 2.28 scale damage in their "quick" form, down from 2.76 scale.

I would say that is a nerf

You now get quick form all the time, and if you are at the old +tohit requirement you will do the old 2.76 scale damage. It just lets you use weaker quicksnipes at lower levels of +tohit.

[Vanden]

Just now, Selenne said:

• Base 2.28 scale damage in their "quick" form, down from 2.76 scale.

I would say that is a nerf

Only if you don't read anything else. On the live shards, to achieve fast snipe, you need 22% +ToHit. That'll get you a 2.76 scale damage attack. On Justin, while in combat, if you have that same 22% ToHit, the fast snipe still does 2.76 scale damage. You are just able to use fast snipe without the ToHit, but at lower damage scale.

[Selenne]

Then I guess i stand corrected if what you guys say is true and you prolyl ar emroe experience don this more than me. However I sitll think Brutes are completly broken at this time, tankers with the damage of scrappers its a bit to much.

[Tutonkamech]

What were the motivations behind these changes? Why were they made?

[Vanden]

3 minutes ago, Tutonkamech said:

What were the motivations behind these changes? Why were they made?

Issue 24 was left in a very incomplete state on the test server when the game was closed. Homecoming team is trying to figure out what the Live devs' final plans were for some changes and implement them, according to Leandro.

[SarelFox]

Quote

• Dominator > Feral Charge: Fixed a bug where sometimes it would do no damage if executed from maximum distance.
• Dominator > Savage Assault > Unkindness: This power erroneously said it consumed Blood Frenzy stacks. The text has been corrected. This power generates one Blood Frenzy stack, and it's DoT becomes stronger the more Blood Frenzy the caster has. This bonus to Unkindness makes up for the set's lack of Savage Leap and Hemorrage.

Can we discuss these too here? Feral charge still has the bug that, despite being a PBAOE, takes Melee damage sets on live. It's not in a bug fix here, so I suppose it's been left in. If it can't be changed now, no biggie. I spent a lot for that melee set anyways. 😄 

 

Note: Haven't been able to get on test server yet. Just wanted to say that's still a thing and isn't in the patch notes.

Edited August 11, 2019 by SarelFox
Haven't been on the test server yet, wanted to clarify that.

[vegetableknife]

Can the pvp damage effects of "Explosive Shuriken" be looked at?  On live the damage is gutted because I think its considered AOE even though as stated, it doesnt take AOE enhancements.

[Jon]

Not sure how to feel about the proc requirement for permanent fast snipe. Why not just leave the +22% to-hit requirement for it instead of forcing everyone to rework their builds to fit in an extra IO, especially since you made a point to entice people to keep their high to-hit builds in the first place by adding a damage increase (to counter the overall damage decrease to snipes)?

Edited August 11, 2019 by Jon

[Replacement]

Snipes

I really like this direction for the Sniping changes.  I think it's important for people to understand that 

a) Current insta-snipe changes were never live.  Nothing says they belong.

b) They, in fact, don't belong.  If you have the esoteric knowledge to make it perma, you're enjoying an attack that performs far outside the design specs.

c) Very, very, very few people have the knowledge to get to use these powers.  They're simply traps for everyone else.

 

Dominator changes

I enjoy the general trend of +Recharge in exchange for +damage -- I find I have too many options with dominators.  Beefs:

3 hours ago, Leandro said:

Spot Prey: This power now grants +68% damage buff and +17 Tohit. Before: +42.5% damage buff and +42.5 ToHit. No longer grants a perception buff.

I strongly urge you to reconsider this.  If you want to retune it a bit, cool.  But it should be a thing that gives a lot of accuracy and, most importantly, a perception buff.  This is the heart and soul of this ability.  Don't normalize away what makes it interesting.

 

3 hours ago, Leandro said:

Thunder Kick: Recharge lowered from 8 seconds to 6 seconds. Damage lowered from 95.8 to 77.1 damage.

The one dominator I've felt like I actually enjoy is the only one you guys are intent on nerfing.  Which is fine, but I have to ask: what's the thought process on this change?  Is this bringing it in-line with other Dominator t2s?  Being a t2 ST attack, this is already a hard sell for power pick.  Giving it a faster-than-I'll-ever-need recharge and lowering damage isn't going to do it any favors.

Edited August 11, 2019 by Replacement

[Replacement]

@Leandro I feel like you should split this topic into 2.  Snipes and Dominator Assault changes are going to be the two hottest points of contention.  This thread is going to get ugly if it stays one thread to discuss them both.

[Jaguaratron]

 Power Boost is now Power Up. (90s recharge, +34% damage, +75% str to other effects for 10 seconds.)  -  34 is a terrible number, Im sure thats what some math formula said is right but at least round it up to 35......

[Selenne]

30 minutes ago, cforciea said:

<deleted>

Thats a bit petty considering thansk to this guy we are playing.

[scran]

What happened to elec assault?

[Jaguaratron]

Earth Assault

• Tremor: Cast time reduced from 3.30 to 2.50 seconds. - This now has no sound effects at all from start to end or on hit, either in 64 bit client or 32 bit.

Hurl and Stone spears which had also been sped up DO have SFX attached to them.

[Jaguaratron]

Savage Assault

• Spot Prey: This power now grants +68% damage buff and +17 Tohit. Before: +42.5% damage buff and +42.5 ToHit. No longer grants a perception buff.

In terms of the loss of a perception buff, why? It was completely thematic and not remotely OP.

[Obitus]

Big fan of the snipe changes.  It's a quality of life buff; there's no downside, people.

 

Everything else looks good too, though I'll cop to not having much interest in or personal knowledge about the affected sets.

[Sidney]

2 hours ago, Leandro said:

The snipe will be fast if you have attacked or been attacked in the last 8 seconds; this is the same time as Stalker's Hide. 

Is there a visual indication of this status change?  Like will the icon for the power show the fast/slow mode that it's in?

[Vanden]

1 minute ago, Sidney said:

Is there a visual indication of this status change?  Like will the icon for the power show the fast/slow mode that it's in?

It's the same as on the regular servers, a yellow circle when fast snipe is active.

 

That said, I can foresee an issue where even though this isn't a nerf, it could feel like a nerf. On the normal servers, when you get that yellow ring, it's like a big "push me!" sign that you want to jump on. Now, that yellow ring is on pretty much all the time, but if you've been conditioned to nail that ring every time it appears, the damage will feel lower because the ring doesn't appear with the 22% ToHit threshold that makes the damage identical to what it used to be. Maybe the ring could be a different color if you have 22% or more ToHit?

Edited August 11, 2019 by Vanden

[Sidney]

1 minute ago, Vanden said:

It's the same as on the regular servers, a yellow circle when fast snipe is active.

Ok ty.  Never built a ToHit blaster for insta before so I didn't know that was a thing.

[senseichen]

Awesome!  Thank you for taking the Dominator Snipe feedback into account.

 

What is the intent behind the Power Boost->Power Up changes for Dominators?  I'd rather have the live Power Boost (with 100% secondary buffs and higher uptime.)

[ShogunGunshow]

45 minutes ago, senseichen said:

Awesome!  Thank you for taking the Dominator Snipe feedback into account.

 

What is the intent behind the Power Boost->Power Up changes for Dominators?  I'd rather have the live Power Boost (with 100% secondary buffs and higher uptime.)

Yeah, same. 25% is an anemic damage boost and not one I would make the trade for.

 

Unless the change is that the BASE value of Power Boost at level 1 is now 75% instead of 66%, which would be an unambiguous buff.