New efforts!

[worldweary]

I may be wrong but I thought there was a few post stating that an all Blaster Team could not run the STF.

[brothermutant]

For fun, yes. For leveling, no way. Wasting all those power choices on things that could easily be replaced by adding one defender seems counter productive to me.

No way man, think of it as a test...a test of your Blaster/Blapper goodness. PLUS, I always equate teammates that picked one or more of the Leadership powers as a team-friendly player, not just someone rushing ahead to kill faster than you or the others.

[brothermutant]

I may be wrong but I thought there was a few post stating that an all Blaster Team could not run the STF.

I could believe that.

[Arcana]

It was quite clear that self-buffing would not be allowed for Defenders if it were even close to the same level of power at which they could buff others. Empathy, for example, could combine Regeneration plus Super Reflexes, with better Recharge and far better Recovery bonuses. Plus some other benefits. Allowing one set to equal multiple other sets in the name of "but allow them to self-buff" would be ludicrously bad design. So either they would have had much weaker buffs with self-buffing, or what they had without self-buffing.

What I really wonder is whether the Devs may have been open to the idea of allowing AoE ally buffs like many of the single-target buffs became, to affect the user at 1/4 to 1/5 of their normal values.

Its not quite true that the devs would not allow self buffing at the same level as ally buffing as a general principle.  For example, there's nothing in Radiation Emission that helps allies more than self, except of course for the rez.  Ditto Trick Arrow.  But what is true is that ally-only powers on an individual basis were often allowed to be stronger than they would ordinarily allow self buff powers to be.  The FF shields are an example of this.  This was more of a case by case thing.

When I was discussing the I24 Blaster changes with Arbiter Hawk, I did a lot of brainstorming about a lot of ideas that I don't recall anymore, but one idea that I was reminded of during these discussions was something you could have added to the Defender "inherent" that I called "resonance."  Resonance would be a feature of some ally-only powers that, depending on the number of allies you hit with the power, would reflect some of the buff back to the caster.  There could be a duality to the effect, so that predominantly defensive effects scaled upward with number of allies: the more allies hit, the more self-buff you got.  Maybe 1% defense to self for every target hit with insulation shield.  But for predominantly offensive effects, the reverse would happen: the effect would be greatest when solo, and decrease the more allies were present.  In effect, solo damage would rise, and self defense would rise in teams to keep you alive to keep buffing the team.

The main problem is that this isn't really an "effect" - its really a proscribed effect that would have to be adjusted by hand for each and every defender primary power, which makes it a very time consuming change to effect.

[Arcana]

I may be wrong but I thought there was a few post stating that an all Blaster Team could not run the STF.

Depends on the kind of blasters.  With maximal invention builds and incarnate powers, and unlimited inspiration use, and targeted builds and expert players?  I think its quite possible.  The maximum number of blasters I've ever seen on a single STF team that we actually won was four, and that was pre-Incarnate.  Give me full incarnate powers and ultimate inspirations and hand-crafted STF-buster builds?  I don't see why it would be impossible.  Time consuming, perhaps, and you'd need very well coordinated players.  But I don't think there's a specific hurdle that powerful enough blasters couldn't overcome.

[HEATSTROKE]

The cors were quite fun blueside.

Yes.. yes they were.. I got a chance to get one really nicely built..

This was my Dual/Pistols Time

Softcapped to S/L/E/N and Ranged
Perma Hasten
Perma Chrono Shift
Perma FarSight

Running Time Juncture just made him that much harder for foes to hit.

He also used the Swap Ammo power's Cryo Ammo to help reduce the speed and attack rate of foes and also had the Gravatic Core Incarnate power to simulate what he called his
"Gravimetric Guns"

Also useful was having the Knockdown Proc in Bullet Rain and Empty Clips


Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.96
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Technology Corruptor
Primary Power Set: Dual Pistols
Secondary Power Set: Time Manipulation
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Pistols -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:35(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:35(5), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:35(7), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:35(7), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:35(9), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(19)
Level 1: Time Crawl -- Acc-I:35(A)
Level 2: Dual Wield -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:35(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:35(9), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:35(11), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:35(11), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:35(19), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(36)
Level 4: Empty Clips -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:35(A), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:35(37), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:35(37), Posi-Dmg/Rng:35(39), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:35(40), Ragnrk-Knock%:50(46)
Level 6: Swap Ammo
Level 8: Bullet Rain -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:35(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:35(40), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:35(40), Posi-Dmg/Rng:35(43), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:35(43), OvForce-Dam/KB:50(45)
Level 10: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:35(A), RechRdx-I:35(17), RechRdx-I:35(17)
Level 12: Temporal Mending -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx:35(A), Dct'dW-Heal:35(13), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:35(13), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:35(15), Dct'dW-Rchg:35(15)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Run-I:35(A)
Level 16: Hover -- Krma-ResKB:30(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+:35(36)
Level 18: Executioner's Shot -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:35(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:35(23), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:35(23), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(25), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:35(25), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:35(45)
Level 20: Time's Juncture -- HO:Enzym(A), HO:Enzym(21), HO:Enzym(21), Slow-I:35(27)
Level 22: Distortion Field -- BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:30(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg:30(27), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold:30(36), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:30(37), Slow-I:30(46)
Level 24: Kick -- Acc-I:35(A)
Level 26: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(A)
Level 28: Farsight -- HO:Membr(A), HO:Membr(29), HO:Membr(29), LkGmblr-Rchg+:35(33)
Level 30: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def:35(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+:35(31), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:35(31), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:35(31)
Level 32: Hail of Bullets -- SMotCorruptor-Acc/Dmg:35(A), SMotCorruptor-Dmg/Rchg:35(33), SMotCorruptor-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:35(33), SMotCorruptor-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(34), SMotCorruptor-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(34), SMotCorruptor-Rchg/Dmg%:35(34)
Level 35: Slowed Response -- HO:Lyso(A), HO:Lyso(50), Achilles-ResDeb%:20(50)
Level 38: Chrono Shift -- Dct'dW-Heal:35(A), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx:35(39), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:35(39), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:35(43), Dct'dW-Rchg:35(45)
Level 41: Scorpion Shield -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:35(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:35(42), LkGmblr-Def:35(42), LkGmblr-Rchg+:35(42)
Level 44: Maneuvers -- EndRdx-I:35(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+:35(46)
Level 47: Time Stop -- BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:30(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg:30(48), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold:30(48), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:30(48)
Level 49: Assault -- EndRdx-I:35(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I:35(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+:35(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:35(50)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I:35(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I:35(A), EndMod-I:35(3), P'Shift-EndMod:35(3), P'Shift-End%:35(5)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Scourge
Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I:35(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Heal-I:35(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 6: Chemical Ammunition
Level 6: Cryo Ammunition
Level 6: Incendiary Ammunition
Level 50: Vorpal Total Core Judgement
Level 50: Robotic Drones Total Core Improved Ally
Level 50: Ageless Partial Core Invocation
Level 50: Assault Total Radial Graft
Level 50: Gravitic Core Flawless Interface
Level 50: Agility Core Paragon
------------
------------
Set Bonus Totals:

• 4% DamageBuff(Smashing)
  
• 4% DamageBuff(Lethal)
  
• 4% DamageBuff(Fire)
  
• 4% DamageBuff(Cold)
  
• 4% DamageBuff(Energy)
  
• 4% DamageBuff(Negative)
  
• 4% DamageBuff(Toxic)
  
• 4% DamageBuff(Psionic)
  
• 3% Defense(Melee)
  
• 3% Defense(Smashing)
  
• 3% Defense(Lethal)
  
• 3% Defense(Fire)
  
• 3% Defense(Cold)
  
• 21.75% Defense(Energy)
  
• 21.75% Defense(Negative)
  
• 3% Defense(Psionic)
  
• 21.75% Defense(Ranged)
  
• 3% Defense(AoE)
  
• 10% Enhancement(Range)
  
• 8% Enhancement(Heal)
  
• 57% Enhancement(Accuracy)
  
• 85% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
  
• 17% SpeedFlying
  
• 56.22 HP (5.25%) HitPoints
  
• 17% JumpHeight
  
• 17% SpeedJumping
  
• Knockback (Mag -4)
  
• Knockup (Mag -4)
  
• MezResist(Terrorized) 4.4%
  
• 15% (0.25 End/sec) Recovery
  
• 20% (0.89 HP/sec) Regeneration
  
• 5.67% Resistance(Fire)
  
• 5.67% Resistance(Cold)
  
• 17% SpeedRunning
  

[LadyVamp]

I may be wrong but I thought there was a few post stating that an all Blaster Team could not run the STF.

It's doable, but I doubt there are many people who could coordinate it.  We used to do it all Def, all Troller,  and all MM frequently.  Defs could do it mainly due to primary powers if you got the right combo.  Getting past GW was the hardest part.  Once past her, it was really just slow(er) bashing.  Trollers/mms usually used the same tactics that Defs did.  The secondaries (troller/mm)/Primaries (Def) made the difference.  I'm certain an all Cor team would rock it too.

Not sure about all Tanks, all Scrappers, all Brutes, all Stalkers teams.  Probably be possible.  Anyone succeed running one of those setups?

[Teikiatsu]

I may be wrong but I thought there was a few post stating that an all Blaster Team could not run the STF.

The one I was on could not complete it, and we were packing a decent amount of debuff for what was available for blasters.  We were able to get as far as Black Scorpion, but could not take down Mako's last few HP.  We didn't even try GW or Scirocco.

[HEATSTROKE]

  We didn't even try GW

Good thing too.. cause you'd still be on the map being held right now.. 3 years later LOL

[Azrael]

I like blasters.  My main was a blaster, from launch to I23.  Some people even liked the fact that Blaster mitigation was impaired, because it posed a unique challenge.  I could respect that.  But if the devs specifically stated that Blasters were intended to be the only singularly difficult archetype to solo, then they would be designed correctly.  They would then have to publicly justify that position.  But they did not.  They explicitly stated that every archetype should be able to solo reasonably well, and within reasonable limits.  They did *not* have to be exactly the same.  But since that was their stated goal, I felt it was completely fair to point out when the game failed to meet their own explicitly stated design requirements.

Put it another way.  If Blasters were datamined to solo 20% worse than everyone else, the devs would have considered that a low priority problem to address.  That's within the reasonable range of variation for the archetypes.  As I understand it, it wasn't even close to that.  Blasters could have been the hard one to solo at 20% worse than average, and Scrappers the easiest at 20% better than average, making Blasters dramatically harder to solo than Scrappers and everything would still be reasonable.  So this wasn't about trying to homogenize the game.  It was about trying to make the ridiculous somewhat less ridiculous.

One more thing to consider, and this one is one that I explicitly considered back then and discussed with the devs.  Suppose that the reason average Blaster performance was bad only because some combinations were bad.  Suppose Fire blasters were kicking it all over the place, and AR blasters were killing everything in sight and Sonic/Ice blasters were practically immortal butt-kickers.  Its just that other powersets like */Fire were dropping dead so often that they pulled the average way down.  If that were the case, then its possible many blaster combinations were just fine comparatively speaking.  However, that's *not* what the devs saw.  If they did, they would have tried to adjust the underperforming powersets.  However, all of them were underperforming, some more than others, but all of them below average significantly.  And that's why the devs tried several times to address the problem with archetype-wide buffs.  Defiance 1.0 and Defiance 2.0 are the signal that there were no good and bad blaster powerset combinations: all of them needed help.  I was explicitly told that if it was just a few bad powersets or powerset combos, the devs would have targeted changes at those underperforming sets.  Targeting the entire archetype is what they did when they believed everything needed the help.

Think about how bad the *worst* Blaster powerset combos must have been doing, when Sonic/Ice and Fire/Energy were doing significantly more than 20% worse than average.

I think its also important to recognize that what we power users perceived and what the average player was suffering under often bore no resemblance whatsoever to each other.  When forum posters claimed something was fine because they played it just fine, more often than not they were just proving they were not representative of the average City of Heroes player.  We lauded our casual friendly nature, but we didn't always fully understand what the capabilities of the average casual player actually were.  The average casual player solos Fire/Energy blasters slower than Empathy/Archery defenders, because the Emp/Arch defender simply doesn't die as often because it has a self heal.  Those were the players we were supposed to be trying to help.

But I liked blasters more than defenders and until I found Dominators, Blasters were my favourite archetype or should have been.  I was as frustrated by if not more so than Defenders.  I felt both were flawed.

The reason I got into blasters early on in the game was because my duo partner and I were really frustrated that our ff/en defenders got hammered by Vahzilock.  And messed a lot by 'erms.'  (The big brown Lost mezza creature.

He suggested maybe I was or the concept I wanted was more blaster.  I was trying to get a blaster to fit concept. 

I tried elec/elec then en/en and settled on the latter.  It was more fun because of the knock back.

The extra damage and the blapper melee stacked with the knockdown...if you were quick and tactical.

And once I six slotted hasten and conserve pre eD I was very happy all g with having the e tea hit points and stamina from the Accolades...

My first l50 and I enjoyed it.  Fond memories.  Be nice to re-roll it when the game comes back...

But later on in the game after trying scrapppers and tanks etc I came to realise just how flawed and broken blasters were despite all the tactical play.  Outside of specialist builds they couldn't scale the difficulty cap plus or wide.  And it's only now when you say a blaster was at least 20% down and a scrapper 20% up that really seems to echo my experience on the ground with the archetypes.

In effect, that's 40% down before you even get to under performing sets!  Ie it could be down 45-50% or higher for others!

This would reflect, for me, how difficult mobs could be from 35-50.  Arachnos, Carnie and Malta would hit you with force multipliers smashing, fire, end drain, slows, knockdown, meZ...high damage one or two shot powers.. Which leave a blaster hitting the mat in seconds.   The odds were stacked against a blaster as you had no defence from all that except running and hiding or hitting harder first.

Ergo my thoughts on self buffing.  Effectively, tanks, brutes, scrapppers (a very greedy archetype...) had layers upon layers of self buff.  In effect.  While a blaster shouldn't be as tough as a hulk tank, some defence, mez and regen should have been allowed to self buff in the spirit of the design I tentio. Of the blast set.  See my ideas previous in this thread.

Same with defenders.  You have eg inherent called equilibrium ...and you have a pot of energy.  You spend it on allies on teams for a greater return of end.  But your blasting and self buff are weaker?

But solo you don't have the 'strain' of spreading your energy thinly to buff alliesx8 so your e edgy is fully focused on you.  Base dam is higher.  End is normal.  And you can self buff because you don't have to focus on allies.  Would having self buff ins and def shields make the defender any more powerful than a tank or scrapper?  No.  Hit points would still be low.  Blasts having the base dam of a blaster no big deal.  It would have made them more robust solo and made more sense to me.

Azrael.

[Azrael]

In essence, you'd have the equivalent of a ranged scrapper in toughness but not as damaging as a blaster in any true sense.

Azrael.

[Joshex]

Depends on the kind of blasters.  With maximal invention builds and incarnate powers, and unlimited inspiration use, and targeted builds and expert players?  I think its quite possible.  The maximum number of blasters I've ever seen on a single STF team that we actually won was four, and that was pre-Incarnate.  Give me full incarnate powers and ultimate inspirations and hand-crafted STF-buster builds?  I don't see why it would be impossible.  Time consuming, perhaps, and you'd need very well coordinated players.  But I don't think there's a specific hurdle that powerful enough blasters couldn't overcome.

One thing they can't overcome ; - Lag.

didn't you ever get support requests from blasters about being one-shotted by players and AVs? the devs were very clear that was a lag issue (or something else got you) as they clearly instated a handicap on all toons to protect against one-shots even while un-enhanced, out leveled and with no active buffs.

it's not necessarily the Player's connection either, the server may just have not allotted enough bandwidth or had a delay between new messages.

yeah, every toon can withstand an attack from recluse, but they'd need to be psychic to get the timing right for the insp to refil health due to lag. even with def around 80% to all LR's damage types you're looking at a /hard/ hit once every 10 attacks which may take around 1 to 2 minutes. which can be enhanced by fly tanking (cause spider boy can't fly) so I'd say once every 15 attacks. the problem is there is a chance for 2-3 consecutive hits, even with such good defense. better have a backup blaster fly-tanker, better have several. definitely need provoke too, need to keep him off the other half of the team that need to do the towers.

actually recluse isn't the problem, it's ghost widow, mako and scirroco. for ghost widow you'd have to have def, res and breakies pre- applied and would have to expect a death or 2 on the pull to get her alone. you'd also need a team of heal-other pool powers.

I suppose it's not impossible, but a masters run would be close to impossible that way.

[Vee]

I suppose it's not impossible, but a masters run would be close to impossible that way.

Not sure I'd trust an all blaster team on a master run from the talos wentworth's to the train.

[Azrael]

Not sure I'd trust an all blaster team on a master run from the talos wentworth's to the train.

Lol.

Azrael.

[LaughingAlex]

An all blaster STF with full incarnate powers?  Actually I'd say, it could be easy, potentially.

Firstly, incarnate powers based on the situation;

Most situations, most blasters should sport barrier.  The huge +defense and +resistance bonus each first casting will mean temporary invulnerability, but the +5% defense would hugely help the blasters most of the earlier situations.  The AV's could possibly even be stomped without any lore pets in the first mission, blaster firepower should suffice.  Combine that +5 defense(from 5-6 or even the entire team) with leadership maneuvers, we'd have nice capped defenses.

So moving on to the last mission, lore pets COULD with a lot of barrier spam and good timing of hybrid powers wipe out the four AV's preceeding lord recluse himself very quickly.

So this leaves us with lord recluse.  Maybe wait the 15 minutes for the lore pets again before spiking the towers down with a coordinated barrier hit?  Maybe the +damage tower first, because blasters resistances cap only at 75%, and the +tohit tower also has to go, but we'd have hard capped defenses, and lore pets do such massive damage that the towers would disintegrate.  It just boils down to initiative and timing from there.  Incarnate powers for defenses while blaster firepower and lore pets do most of the work.  Hell, bring blasters who've unlocked multiple destiny powers, so if you got more than enough barriers you can bring a rebirth or an ageless.  Hell maybe even clarion, though I think breakfree's could suffice for the TF.

[Balince]

All this CoH talk just makes me miss the game so much more and want to try sets I never had the chance too. I know there's no reason for anyone to say anything unless they got the game back or didn't but it sure would be nice to hear something for the holiday season.

[worldweary]

If you have lvl 50+4  incarnate powers then you should have to run the TF +4.Seems only fair.

[Lithy]

deleted, never mind.

[Arcana]

Good thing too.. cause you'd still be on the map being held right now.. 3 years later LOL

Ghost Widow had a huge Achilles Heel many players didn't realize they could exploit.  Most of her strength comes from consistently hitting you.  That's where she gets her devastating mez and her large self heal.  Not everyone has high enough defense to protect against that, but if its just for one AV, everyone has enough inspiration slots to carry plain old medium lucks that will last long enough to dispatch her.

[Arcana]

The cors were quite fun blueside.

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=www.mixcrate.com%2Fimg%2Fugc%2Fcovers%2F8%2F5%2F856603_l.jpg%3Fv%3D928201356