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Boomerangs of "I Win"

rsrobinsonrsrobinson Posts: 4 Arc User
edited August 2012 in Power Discussion
So has Cryptic just fired all the devs who have a clue about,
or cared about, balance... even just a little? First it was Laser
Sword, now it is these Boomerang powers that aren't even
remotely balanced.

I pulled up the All Powers page on my tank. As a tank, she is running
a defensive passive and I turned off her form just to get rid of that
boost favoring melee powers. She has +4% melee damage from Strength and +8%
from Ego on ranged so ranged numbers will be a tiny bit higher, but
I don't intend to compare melee vs ranged. Just each vs other existing
powers of the same type. All comparisons are for rank 1 powers.


LASER SWORD

Let's start with "old news". Laser Sword is a three-attack combo.
"Combo" powers are the melee equivalent to ranged's "Blast"
powers - i.e. they are typically weak and thus have some strong
boosts available in the specialization trees. So the numbers
below? Just realize it'll get worse when you take advantage of those
things.

Anyway, Laser Sword has a three-attack combo with each attack taking
0.5 seconds. So 1.5 seconds for the whole. Damage for this character
is 434/499/785, with the third attack having a chance to add Plasma
Burn for an additional 20 damage twice per second for 10 seconds.
For those keeping score at home, that is an additional 400 damage
when it triggers. Even ignoring that, we are talking 1718 damage over
the 1.5 seconds, or 1145 DPS.

Let's compare that to an existing 'overpowered' power, say Dragon's
Claw. Claw on this character does 1184 damage for a 1.5 second charge,
or 790 DPS. 45% more raw damage than an already OP power, and a
combo power to boot? Now Claw does have the huge boost to crit severity,
and that'll probably end up adding more damage than Sword's Plasma Burn,
but not *that* much more damage! And we are talking about a power
that is the top of the heap! Dragon's Wrath, another OP power, has
the same base damage as Claw so it too is embarrassed by the new Laser
Sword in the same way.


BOOMERANGS, OR "I WIN"

So Laser Sword was bad enough. At least it costs a ton of energy to
get all that damage. Today, along comes the boomerang powers. Even the
energy builder is stupidly OP!

The boomerang EB has a 0.67 activation for each 'tick' and does 212
damage/+20% energy on the first tick followed by 186/+15% on each
additional tick. Let's compare that to the Particle Rifle builder
right in the same set - 0.5 second activation for 94 damage/+13%
energy, followed by 67 damage/+9.4% energy. In the first 2 seconds,
Boomerang has done 585 damage and granted 50% energy while Particle
Rifle has done 295 damage and 41% energy. So much for all energy
builders being balanced to give the same energy over time. Not that
this energy advantage is needed since the powers themselves cost
stupidly little...

So let's start with the single-target attack. Ricochet Throw has the
ability to tap for 0.67 seconds doing 560 damage. And that costs, on
this char, 2.1 energy. That is off roughly by a factor of 10 to what
it should cost. And it is a blast power - you know, the ones
that have lots of boosts for it all through the specialization trees
to offset blast powers being poor! Um, wha, uh...

Just for comparison, Defile is considered a strong ranged attack.
It taps the same 0.67 seconds doing 460 damage at a cost of 30 energy!
I won't bother to compare either to another blast power, like say
Two-Gun Mojo, as the discrepency just becomes laughable. So 22%
better damage at 7% the energy cost of an existing strong ranged
power. The damage boost is basically a free extra rank, but the energy
cost is "OMFG, WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING!" level of stupid.
Low-level characters struggling for energy in other sets, time to be
flat-out embarrassed in Alerts by your new Boomerang overlords! High
level characters? Well since you don't have to waste a single thought
on energy with such costs, every single stat, power, and specialization
pick can go straight to more offense and defense. And all this for
only 20% ADDITIONAL damage! What a deal!

But wait! There's more! Throwing Blades is the AOE. It has a 50'
range, 120 degree cones. Which is HUGE! That trumps the AOE radius of
basically anything other than Lead Tempest. So for a 0.67 second tap,
we get... 538 damage. For 1.7 energy!

Electricity is known for its strong AOEs, so let's compare. Lightning
Storm is arguably the better of its two quality AOEs. Storm takes 0.5
seconds to get started then ticks for 327 damage per 0.5 second.
At the cost of 14 energy per tick (plus the 20 just to get it started)
So one of the best AOEs in the game is costing you 28 energy to do 650
damage per second. Or you could tap-spam Blades to do 800 damage
costing 2.5 energy per second. Yeah whatever. 23% more damage for
9% of the energy. And you can tap spam it! (For those who don't get why
that is good, head to your local Knockback fest... err, I mean Alert,
and see how long you can hold down a maintain on average before getting
knocked/held/interrupted. If you get past the initial animation to actually
*get* a tick of damage, count yourself fortunate!)

Lightning's other quality AOE, Gigabolt, is even more directly comparable.
It does 406 damage for a 0.67 second tap costing 32 energy. Or we
could just use the new "I win" set for 538 damage at 1.7 energy.



Look, I know Cryptic hasn't proven to care much about balance
recently. But this stuff? You don't even need a calculator to see
just how out of whack this stuff is. I stared at the powers screen
for quite some time, trying to figure out what I'm missing. But there
appears to be nothing. The game has just gone into "super power creep"
mode.

So instead of spending time helping underperforming sets like Ice,
Darkness, Telepathy, Archery, or Munitions... how about we just push
them even further and further behind! Yeah, sounds like a plan! In
the Bizarro world. Which I guess is where we are now.
Post edited by rsrobinson on

Comments

  • Options
    agentnx5agentnx5 Posts: 1,999 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    At first I was just expecting a stereotypical "X is overpowered, please nerf X!" but you make a strong case with multiple correlations and other examples to back up your comparative evidence.

    I don't have any outstanding critiques to make at this time that are plainly apparent. As far as I can tell, boomerang is going to become the new Flavor of the Month (FotM). I mean, why not? It's effective and apparently very tiny on the energy cost, comparatively.
  • Options
    sagewithbubblessagewithbubbles Posts: 484 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    You lost me at saying Plasma Burn was overpowered and that the spec tree boosts to Blasts are "strong".
    _______________________________
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    _______________________________

    The user formerly known as Dr. Sage.
    _______________________________
  • Options
    agentnx5agentnx5 Posts: 1,999 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    You lost me at saying Plasma Burn was overpowered and that the spec tree boosts to Blasts are "strong".

    There's a valid critique, although I comprehended that part of the message different (not as severely, so it didn't really register). You should do a quote for the part your critiquing next time, be specific.

    I also read the whole message, did you?



    @ rsrobinson

    I think you're going to need to post more details of your build to get better feedback. You can input your build here and then export to make it into an easy-to-read forum post:
    http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html

    FYI: It should be noted that Defile also has a toggle that can increase it's damage significantly and that it applies a debuff: Aspect of the Infernal
  • Options
    mijjesticmijjestic Posts: 481 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    rsrobinson wrote: »
    Low-level characters struggling for energy in other sets, time to be flat-out embarrassed in Alerts by your new Boomerang overlords!

    I lol'd at that. Boomerang overlords!

    If this really stands true, that it's overpowered, its pretty comical.
  • Options
    ashensnowashensnow Posts: 2,048 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    rsrobinson wrote: »
    So has Cryptic just fired all the devs who have a clue about,
    or cared about, balance... even just a little? First it was Laser
    Sword, now it is these Boomerang powers that aren't even
    remotely balanced.

    I pulled up the All Powers page on my tank. As a tank, she is running
    a defensive passive and I turned off her form just to get rid of that
    boost favoring melee powers. She has +4% melee damage from Strength and +8%
    from Ego on ranged so ranged numbers will be a tiny bit higher, but
    I don't intend to compare melee vs ranged. Just each vs other existing
    powers of the same type. All comparisons are for rank 1 powers.


    LASER SWORD

    Let's start with "old news". Laser Sword is a three-attack combo.
    "Combo" powers are the melee equivalent to ranged's "Blast"
    powers - i.e. they are typically weak and thus have some strong
    boosts available in the specialization trees. So the numbers
    below? Just realize it'll get worse when you take advantage of those
    things.

    Anyway, Laser Sword has a three-attack combo with each attack taking
    0.5 seconds. So 1.5 seconds for the whole. Damage for this character
    is 434/499/785, with the third attack having a chance to add Plasma
    Burn for an additional 20 damage twice per second for 10 seconds.
    For those keeping score at home, that is an additional 400 damage
    when it triggers. Even ignoring that, we are talking 1718 damage over
    the 1.5 seconds, or 1145 DPS.

    Let's compare that to an existing 'overpowered' power, say Dragon's
    Claw. Claw on this character does 1184 damage for a 1.5 second charge,
    or 790 DPS. 45% more raw damage than an already OP power, and a
    combo power to boot? Now Claw does have the huge boost to crit severity,
    and that'll probably end up adding more damage than Sword's Plasma Burn,
    but not *that* much more damage! And we are talking about a power
    that is the top of the heap! Dragon's Wrath, another OP power, has
    the same base damage as Claw so it too is embarrassed by the new Laser
    Sword in the same way.
    .

    Did you take Dragon Claw's increased critical severity into consideration ?
    Did you take Dragon's Wrath's defense penetration into consideration ?
    Did you take both powers' ability to produce the Rush buff into consideration ?

    Laser Sword (.5 second activation time, 24 energy cost per activation)
    + 386 \ 444 \ 698 (1528 for a full 1.5 second combo)

    Dragon's Claw (.67 second activation, .83 second charge time, 36/61 energy per activation)
    + 494-1,053 (1053 for a full 1.5 second charge)

    Now, assuming a crit based build with 50% crit chance and 100% severity that means a total average damage increase of 50%.

    This puts Laser Sword at 2292 for an energy cost of 72

    Dragon's Claw, with its increased severity, is at 1843 for a base cost of 61 energy that will be further reduced by 15% to 51 or so. In addition to an energy over time buff of 15/second. So lets subtract the energy gain of Rush from the cost of DC. 15 per second means 22 per 1.5 seconds. This means that DC has a net energy cost of 36 or so per full charge...half of what that Laser Sword Combo costs. 80% of the damage for only 50% of the cost ? You may be right. There may very well be an imbalance here....but you may be mistaken about which has the upper hand.

    Now factor in other elements such as passive:

    A Laser Sword character cannot get as much damage out of a passive as is possible for a Dragon's Claw user. If both use an offensive passive the only full damage option for the LS character is Electrical Form, which provides a much smaller benefit than Way of the Warrior. In addition WotW provides superior non damage buffs than Electric Form.

    So we have LS costing 144 energy over the course of two combos (3 seconds) and DC costing 72. DC has higher burst capability. DC takes better advantage of passive options. LS has better DPS, assuming that you can sustain its 48 energy per second cost better than the 24 energy per second cost of repeated DC charges.

    Keep in mind that the very low energy to damage of DC means having more flexibility in how one allocates stats and spec tree choices as well.

    Ego Weaponry (.35 \ .4 \ .75 sec activation time 12 \ 11 \ 10 energy cost)
    + 175 \ 230 \ 507

    Now EW will generally have 25% higher crit chance than LS due to Ego Leech. Its cost will be lowered by 25% due to Ego Leech as well.

    With Ego Leech and FotT EW can be used as an energy builder. With Mental Discipline rather than FotT, and with readily attainable levels of crit chance/severity through gear, I had a 93% crit chance and 120% severity on EW.

    Certainly less damage per tick than LS, but this produces a net energy gain. Literally negative cost for very respectable DPS.


    You really have to look at the big picture when attempting to judge balance.

    'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
  • Options
    haleakalahaleakala Posts: 449 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    The OP provides numbers without context, like damage buffs from SS's. Only his STR and EGO %'s are supplied. I took the liberty of recording the rank 1 numbers on a level 40 with no SS's and no gear; thus, the numbers are raw numbers unaffected by anything.

    Ricochet Throw: 3.6-8 energy; 1.33 Charge, .67 activate; 423-667
    Defile: 50-109 energy; 1.83 charge, .67 activate; 347-1233

    Other blast powers (T0's in comparison to to Ricochet Throws T1)

    Ego Blast: 18-50 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 186-729
    Shadow Blast: 19-53 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 194-762
    Eldritch Blast: 16-48 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 187-732
    Power Gauntlet: 17-50 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 168-657
    Straight Shot: 23-46 energy; 1.33 charge; .67 activate; 225-638
    Ice Blast: 18-45 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 179-702
    Gust: 23-28 energy; .83 charge; .67 activate; 265-566
    Force Blast: 19-46 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 183-717

    Also:

    Lightning Arc: 16 energy per pulse; .67 per pulse; 146-324
    Two Gun Mojo: 15 energy, then 12 per pulse; .5 per pulse; 181

    AoE

    Throwing Blades: 2.8-11 energy; .83 charge, .67 activate; 406-580
    Lightning Storm: 33 energy initially, 24 per pulse; .5 seconds per pulse; 247
    Gigabolt: 54-177 energy; 2.33 charge; .67 activate; 306-1306

    Conclusions:

    1) The throwing blade energy powers are indeed very low in comparison to other ranged powers that fulfill similar roles. This is perhaps their greatest advantage. Why is this in a set (Gadgeteering) that has traditionally been based around Int as an SS? Well, the powers were built for the new AT, which features DEX, STR and EGO, none of which contribute to energy management. This suggests the primary motivation for the energy costs is to make the AT more playable, not to fit in with over-arching power balance. This is reinforced by the fact that some Claws powers had their damage buffed this patch, especially the ones that the new AT uses.

    2) Ricochet Throw's tap damage seems very high in comparison to other Blast powers, and indeed generates more damage than Two Gun and LA, T0 and T1 maintains. However, this will be partially mitigated on a crit build, except for LA, due to shorter activation times which allow more chances to crit.

    3) On the AoE, assuming perfect timing on the activation of the tap spam, TB will generate 1218 damage over two seconds, whereas LS will generate 988 and Gigabolt will generate 918 (at a whopping 162 energy).

    4) The energy costs seem to be more out of line than the damage, though it's hard to separate those two factors, as the throwing blade powers will likely be more readily available due to low energy costs.

    5) Since the full-charge end of the damage spectrum on both throwing blade powers is low by comparison, these two powers break the unwritten rule for charge powers, that a charge will do more DPS than a tap.

    6) I'm not sure the issue is as big as the OP states, but there is definitely something going on with these powers. It might be that the game as a whole is moving towards greater power for all, albeit at the speed of a glacier as far as one's favorite powers might be concerned.
    _________________________________________________

    I been a long time leaving but I'm going to be a long time gone.

    Willie Nelson


    T.U.F.K.A.S. (the user formerly known as Scarlyng)
    Wrong on the CO forums since November, 2008
  • Options
    theapygoostheapygoos Posts: 384 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    haleakala wrote: »
    The OP provides numbers without context, like damage buffs from SS's. Only his STR and EGO %'s are supplied. I took the liberty of recording the rank 1 numbers on a level 40 with no SS's and no gear; thus, the numbers are raw numbers unaffected by anything.

    Ricochet Throw: 3.6-8 energy; 1.33 Charge, .67 activate; 423-667
    Defile: 50-109 energy; 1.83 charge, .67 activate; 347-1233

    Other blast powers (T0's in comparison to to Ricochet Throws T1)

    Ego Blast: 18-50 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 186-729
    Shadow Blast: 19-53 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 194-762
    Eldritch Blast: 16-48 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 187-732
    Power Gauntlet: 17-50 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 168-657
    Straight Shot: 23-46 energy; 1.33 charge; .67 activate; 225-638
    Ice Blast: 18-45 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 179-702
    Gust: 23-28 energy; .83 charge; .67 activate; 265-566
    Force Blast: 19-46 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 183-717

    Also:

    Lightning Arc: 16 energy per pulse; .67 per pulse; 146-324
    Two Gun Mojo: 15 energy, then 12 per pulse; .5 per pulse; 181

    AoE

    Throwing Blades: 2.8-11 energy; .83 charge, .67 activate; 406-580
    Lightning Storm: 33 energy initially, 24 per pulse; .5 seconds per pulse; 247
    Gigabolt: 54-177 energy; 2.33 charge; .67 activate; 306-1306

    Conclusions:

    1) The throwing blade energy powers are indeed very low in comparison to other ranged powers that fulfill similar roles. This is perhaps their greatest advantage. Why is this in a set (Gadgeteering) that has traditionally been based around Int as an SS? Well, the powers were built for the new AT, which features DEX, STR and EGO, none of which contribute to energy management. This suggests the primary motivation for the energy costs is to make the AT more playable, not to fit in with over-arching power balance. This is reinforced by the fact that some Claws powers had their damage buffed this patch, especially the ones that the new AT uses.

    2) Ricochet Throw's tap damage seems very high in comparison to other Blast powers, and indeed generates more damage than Two Gun and LA, T0 and T1 maintains. However, this will be partially mitigated on a crit build, except for LA, due to shorter activation times which allow more chances to crit.

    3) On the AoE, assuming perfect timing on the activation of the tap spam, TB will generate 1218 damage over two seconds, whereas LS will generate 988 and Gigabolt will generate 918 (at a whopping 162 energy).

    4) The energy costs seem to be more out of line than the damage, though it's hard to separate those two factors, as the throwing blade powers will likely be more readily available due to low energy costs.

    5) Since the full-charge end of the damage spectrum on both throwing blade powers is low by comparison, these two powers break the unwritten rule for charge powers, that a charge will do more DPS than a tap.

    6) I'm not sure the issue is as big as the OP states, but there is definitely something going on with these powers. It might be that the game as a whole is moving towards greater power for all, albeit at the speed of a glacier as far as one's favorite powers might be concerned.

    the energy cost is a bug, so thanks to your comparative research, they seem just about inline
  • Options
    mijjesticmijjestic Posts: 481 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Awesome job haleakala.

    To understand the full impact would probably also need a max DPS comparison, since that base damage is going to be significantly multiplied at the far end.

    Ricochet Throw tap of 423 vs. (presumably highest) Gust 265, both at .67, is a huge swing (+60% I believe), for less energy.

    But granted the comparison to Defile is not so bad if you discount the preposterous energy difference. Not sure what RT's non damage bonuses are but Defile has a debuff built in to make up the difference in damage.
    theapygoos wrote: »
    the energy cost is a bug, so thanks to your comparative research, they seem just about inline

    If the energy cost (or display??) is a bug what is it supposed to be??? Is it at Defile levels? That seems unlikely.
  • Options
    ashensnowashensnow Posts: 2,048 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    mijjestic wrote: »
    If the energy cost (or display??) is a bug what is it supposed to be??? Is it at Defile levels? That seems unlikely.

    I think he was referring to the actual cost. I just came from testing on a level 25 character without any points spent in END and could not get my energy to drop while spamming the power. My END remained at my equilibrium.

    (disclaimer: I did have concentration but no energy unlock)

    'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
  • Options
    sockmunkeysockmunkey Posts: 4,504 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    nisdiddums wrote: »
    Powers:
    -Gadgeteering: Boomerang Powers: These powers were not correctly receiving some of their energy costs. Their costs have been increased significantly.
    - Gadgeteering: Gas Pellets: Ranks 2 and 3 should now properly scale

    Seems a fix is on the way. Check the latest PTS notes
  • Options
    agentnx5agentnx5 Posts: 1,999 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    sockmunkey wrote: »
    Seems a fix is on the way. Check the latest PTS notes

    Good news :smile:
  • Options
    gravouisgravouis Posts: 25 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    rsrobinson wrote: »
    So has Cryptic just fired all the devs who have a clue about,
    or cared about, balance... even just a little? First it was Laser
    Sword, now it is these Boomerang powers that aren't even
    remotely balanced.

    I pulled up the All Powers page on my tank. As a tank, she is running
    a defensive passive and I turned off her form just to get rid of that
    boost favoring melee powers. She has +4% melee damage from Strength and +8%
    from Ego on ranged so ranged numbers will be a tiny bit higher, but
    I don't intend to compare melee vs ranged. Just each vs other existing
    powers of the same type. All comparisons are for rank 1 powers.


    LASER SWORD

    Let's start with "old news". Laser Sword is a three-attack combo.
    "Combo" powers are the melee equivalent to ranged's "Blast"
    powers - i.e. they are typically weak and thus have some strong
    boosts available in the specialization trees. So the numbers
    below? Just realize it'll get worse when you take advantage of those
    things.

    Anyway, Laser Sword has a three-attack combo with each attack taking
    0.5 seconds. So 1.5 seconds for the whole. Damage for this character
    is 434/499/785, with the third attack having a chance to add Plasma
    Burn for an additional 20 damage twice per second for 10 seconds.
    For those keeping score at home, that is an additional 400 damage
    when it triggers. Even ignoring that, we are talking 1718 damage over
    the 1.5 seconds, or 1145 DPS.

    Let's compare that to an existing 'overpowered' power, say Dragon's
    Claw. Claw on this character does 1184 damage for a 1.5 second charge,
    or 790 DPS. 45% more raw damage than an already OP power, and a
    combo power to boot? Now Claw does have the huge boost to crit severity,
    and that'll probably end up adding more damage than Sword's Plasma Burn,
    but not *that* much more damage! And we are talking about a power
    that is the top of the heap! Dragon's Wrath, another OP power, has
    the same base damage as Claw so it too is embarrassed by the new Laser
    Sword in the same way.


    BOOMERANGS, OR "I WIN"

    So Laser Sword was bad enough. At least it costs a ton of energy to
    get all that damage. Today, along comes the boomerang powers. Even the
    energy builder is stupidly OP!

    The boomerang EB has a 0.67 activation for each 'tick' and does 212
    damage/+20% energy on the first tick followed by 186/+15% on each
    additional tick. Let's compare that to the Particle Rifle builder
    right in the same set - 0.5 second activation for 94 damage/+13%
    energy, followed by 67 damage/+9.4% energy. In the first 2 seconds,
    Boomerang has done 585 damage and granted 50% energy while Particle
    Rifle has done 295 damage and 41% energy. So much for all energy
    builders being balanced to give the same energy over time. Not that
    this energy advantage is needed since the powers themselves cost
    stupidly little...

    So let's start with the single-target attack. Ricochet Throw has the
    ability to tap for 0.67 seconds doing 560 damage. And that costs, on
    this char, 2.1 energy. That is off roughly by a factor of 10 to what
    it should cost. And it is a blast power - you know, the ones
    that have lots of boosts for it all through the specialization trees
    to offset blast powers being poor! Um, wha, uh...

    Just for comparison, Defile is considered a strong ranged attack.
    It taps the same 0.67 seconds doing 460 damage at a cost of 30 energy!
    I won't bother to compare either to another blast power, like say
    Two-Gun Mojo, as the discrepency just becomes laughable. So 22%
    better damage at 7% the energy cost of an existing strong ranged
    power. The damage boost is basically a free extra rank, but the energy
    cost is "OMFG, WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING!" level of stupid.
    Low-level characters struggling for energy in other sets, time to be
    flat-out embarrassed in Alerts by your new Boomerang overlords! High
    level characters? Well since you don't have to waste a single thought
    on energy with such costs, every single stat, power, and specialization
    pick can go straight to more offense and defense. And all this for
    only 20% ADDITIONAL damage! What a deal!

    But wait! There's more! Throwing Blades is the AOE. It has a 50'
    range, 120 degree cones. Which is HUGE! That trumps the AOE radius of
    basically anything other than Lead Tempest. So for a 0.67 second tap,
    we get... 538 damage. For 1.7 energy!

    Electricity is known for its strong AOEs, so let's compare. Lightning
    Storm is arguably the better of its two quality AOEs. Storm takes 0.5
    seconds to get started then ticks for 327 damage per 0.5 second.
    At the cost of 14 energy per tick (plus the 20 just to get it started)
    So one of the best AOEs in the game is costing you 28 energy to do 650
    damage per second. Or you could tap-spam Blades to do 800 damage
    costing 2.5 energy per second. Yeah whatever. 23% more damage for
    9% of the energy. And you can tap spam it! (For those who don't get why
    that is good, head to your local Knockback fest... err, I mean Alert,
    and see how long you can hold down a maintain on average before getting
    knocked/held/interrupted. If you get past the initial animation to actually
    *get* a tick of damage, count yourself fortunate!)

    Lightning's other quality AOE, Gigabolt, is even more directly comparable.
    It does 406 damage for a 0.67 second tap costing 32 energy. Or we
    could just use the new "I win" set for 538 damage at 1.7 energy.



    Look, I know Cryptic hasn't proven to care much about balance
    recently. But this stuff? You don't even need a calculator to see
    just how out of whack this stuff is. I stared at the powers screen
    for quite some time, trying to figure out what I'm missing. But there
    appears to be nothing. The game has just gone into "super power creep"
    mode.

    So instead of spending time helping underperforming sets like Ice,
    Darkness, Telepathy, Archery, or Munitions... how about we just push
    them even further and further behind! Yeah, sounds like a plan! In
    the Bizarro world. Which I guess is where we are now.

    dude your a cry baby !!
    the boomrange is not over powered at all.
    its a aoe skill and only does more damage when night hawk archtypes use sneak then it does high damage and we can't use sneak all the time it takes time to go in to sneak and get the crits for it to work to do more damage.
    so no its not over powered your just a cry baby gamer who must of dueled a higher level night hawk type and lost.
    so now you cry about it.
    and so far the boomrange is a better range aoe then stars are and is great for the archtype it helps out in boss story line battles if you nerf it then the night hawk archtype is useless.
    so have common sense kid and stop being a cry baby about it.
    people like you ruin the games and the fun of new content.
  • Options
    gravouisgravouis Posts: 25 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    haleakala wrote: »
    The OP provides numbers without context, like damage buffs from SS's. Only his STR and EGO %'s are supplied. I took the liberty of recording the rank 1 numbers on a level 40 with no SS's and no gear; thus, the numbers are raw numbers unaffected by anything.

    Ricochet Throw: 3.6-8 energy; 1.33 Charge, .67 activate; 423-667
    Defile: 50-109 energy; 1.83 charge, .67 activate; 347-1233

    Other blast powers (T0's in comparison to to Ricochet Throws T1)

    Ego Blast: 18-50 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 186-729
    Shadow Blast: 19-53 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 194-762
    Eldritch Blast: 16-48 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 187-732
    Power Gauntlet: 17-50 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 168-657
    Straight Shot: 23-46 energy; 1.33 charge; .67 activate; 225-638
    Ice Blast: 18-45 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 179-702
    Gust: 23-28 energy; .83 charge; .67 activate; 265-566
    Force Blast: 19-46 energy; 1.5 charge; .5 activate; 183-717

    Also:

    Lightning Arc: 16 energy per pulse; .67 per pulse; 146-324
    Two Gun Mojo: 15 energy, then 12 per pulse; .5 per pulse; 181

    AoE

    Throwing Blades: 2.8-11 energy; .83 charge, .67 activate; 406-580
    Lightning Storm: 33 energy initially, 24 per pulse; .5 seconds per pulse; 247
    Gigabolt: 54-177 energy; 2.33 charge; .67 activate; 306-1306

    Conclusions:

    1) The throwing blade energy powers are indeed very low in comparison to other ranged powers that fulfill similar roles. This is perhaps their greatest advantage. Why is this in a set (Gadgeteering) that has traditionally been based around Int as an SS? Well, the powers were built for the new AT, which features DEX, STR and EGO, none of which contribute to energy management. This suggests the primary motivation for the energy costs is to make the AT more playable, not to fit in with over-arching power balance. This is reinforced by the fact that some Claws powers had their damage buffed this patch, especially the ones that the new AT uses.

    2) Ricochet Throw's tap damage seems very high in comparison to other Blast powers, and indeed generates more damage than Two Gun and LA, T0 and T1 maintains. However, this will be partially mitigated on a crit build, except for LA, due to shorter activation times which allow more chances to crit.

    3) On the AoE, assuming perfect timing on the activation of the tap spam, TB will generate 1218 damage over two seconds, whereas LS will generate 988 and Gigabolt will generate 918 (at a whopping 162 energy).

    4) The energy costs seem to be more out of line than the damage, though it's hard to separate those two factors, as the throwing blade powers will likely be more readily available due to low energy costs.

    5) Since the full-charge end of the damage spectrum on both throwing blade powers is low by comparison, these two powers break the unwritten rule for charge powers, that a charge will do more DPS than a tap.

    6) I'm not sure the issue is as big as the OP states, but there is definitely something going on with these powers. It might be that the game as a whole is moving towards greater power for all, albeit at the speed of a glacier as far as one's favorite powers might be concerned.

    the way the game is made all charge powers do more damage then tap any way.
    so why say its over pwered when its doing its job at charged point !
    I been playing the night hawk archtype and the boomrange does what it says in its specs for it for full charge !
    so why you gamers crying about like little babies ?
    it seems to me your whinning and crying about this new archtype skill set cause you want yours to be the one thats over powered and favored in the game !
    I suggest you play the archtype your self on both normal archtype and freefoprm and see what makes the difference !
    cause freefrom we can choice what we want and get more power out of it.
    its how we build the toon not how the devs set it to be for normal archtype.
    thats why we freefrom players are paid sub gamers...
    deall with it and stop crying like wimps.
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    gravouisgravouis Posts: 25 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    I gopt 2 night hawk toons 1 female and 1 male.
    and the male one has brute fist close combat skils and boomrange and night warrior passive does good range damage compare to close cause I set my toon to do more ego.
    and on the female one I made it use the unleash swords for close aoes and the whirlwinds skill and the doul blade skill on it helps with defense when close combat .
    and again on that toon I have more ego and dex then strength so I can do more damage from afar with boomrange cause it does good aoe damage duren pve and story line boss battles.
    without the boomrange damage night hawk archtype and its skills be useless and not fun to play any more.
    and if you cry babies have this set nerfed I bet me and allot of gamers will leave this game and PW,inc will lose its money on this new archtype.
    cause I am bored with the old archtype skill set no matter how I set them.
    this new archtype is a mixed breed and is loads of fun to play.
    I love the sneak skill that helps with higher crit damage and the boomrange skill and able to use close combat skills with it.
    if boomrange gets nerfed I leave and close my account and I know other gamers on here too that will do the same.
    so grow a pair and stop being a bunch of cry babies !!
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    williamkonywilliamkony Posts: 582 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Those posts were painful to read, Gravouis. Please refrain from namecalling and assumption-based debate. (For example, "you must have gotten beat by this power and are now coming on to whine about it".)

    Robinson provided hard data to back up his claim. There's been other hard data provided to debunk it, of course, but he still put effort into what he said. Your posts there, on the other hand, appear to be incredibly rude and lazy.

    I'm not going to be "joining" one side or the other on this issue, as I don't currently have the patience to do my own research. I will say, however, that far more players care about game balance than you appear to think. The game runs more risk of losing paying players by letting powers remain broken than they do by roundabout-nerfing an Archetype via balance changes.
    Dasher@Tool-box, donning his armor to prance into battle and blitz the enemy! No joke!
    Cupid@Tool-box, stunningly radiant stag ready to play matchmaker between villain and arrow!
    Vixon@Tool-box, frighteningly eager to summon despair for his adversaries!
    Jebin Zedalu@Tool-box, elementalist weaponmaster. ...One of these things is not like the others!
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    ashensnowashensnow Posts: 2,048 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    gravouis wrote: »
    if boomrange gets nerfed I leave and close my account and I know other gamers on here too that will do the same.
    so grow a pair and stop being a bunch of cry babies !!

    1) the boomerang skills are OP in the sense that they do more damage per energy than anything else in the game...But that is being fixed, as in tonight on the PTS.

    Again, the energy cost is the issue, not the damage. If you did not understand that point in the posts you quoted, now you know.

    If this power having its energy cost increased is enough to cause you to leave....goodbye because its a done deal according to the devs.

    'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
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    haleakalahaleakala Posts: 449 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    gravouis wrote: »
    the way the game is made all charge powers do more damage then tap any way.
    so why say its over pwered when its doing its job at charged point !
    I been playing the night hawk archtype and the boomrange does what it says in its specs for it for full charge !
    so why you gamers crying about like little babies ?
    it seems to me your whinning and crying about this new archtype skill set cause you want yours to be the one thats over powered and favored in the game !
    I suggest you play the archtype your self on both normal archtype and freefoprm and see what makes the difference !
    cause freefrom we can choice what we want and get more power out of it.
    its how we build the toon not how the devs set it to be for normal archtype.
    thats why we freefrom players are paid sub gamers...
    deall with it and stop crying like wimps.

    Hmm, so much for reading comprehension.

    And no, the two boomerang charge-ups do NOT do more DPS when charged than when tapped, which makes them an exception to the rule. To illustrate using the baseline level 40 numbers for Ricochet Throw:

    Charged: 2 seconds, does 667 damage for DPS 333.5
    Tapped: 3 taps doing 423, total damage over 2 seconds is `1269, DPS of 634.5

    And no, I wasn't crying for a nerf. The energy costs were out of wack, it's a bug, it's being fixed, end of story. If the devs want to introduce a power that does more sustained damage on tap than charged, more power to them.

    So, no, I wasn't trying to get your precious nerfed.
    _________________________________________________

    I been a long time leaving but I'm going to be a long time gone.

    Willie Nelson


    T.U.F.K.A.S. (the user formerly known as Scarlyng)
    Wrong on the CO forums since November, 2008
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    gravouisgravouis Posts: 25 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    boomrang gets its high damage from crits !
    its a prove fact and the energy cost I don't care about it its the damage it does for a aoe effect that I like.
    and where it is a aoe skill it shoudl do that much damage.
    night hawk does not have many aoe skills unlike lighting and its defense is lower then other archtypes.
    so there for the boomrang damage and crits makes it balanced.
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    m34nb34r2m34nb34r2 Posts: 34 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    zomg... Ricochet throw is a BLAST. That means avenger mastery works on it! That could be REALLY REALLY NICE! Does it count as an aoe or a single target though, so I know what spec to take to boost its critical chance in the vindicator tree?
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    m34nb34r2m34nb34r2 Posts: 34 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    ...How does sonic device interact with ricochet throw? First hit only or on each bounce?
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    cptmillenniumcptmillennium Posts: 450 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    I have to agree with the OP, the Throwing Blades are pretty ridiculous. Double damage and +20% crit severity out of stealth...I'm able to one-shot every group of mobs I come across, even red- and purple-cons. There's no challenge at all there.

    I see that the energy cost was upped significantly, but it's still an easily spammable power that does an inordinately high amount of damage.

    Maybe drop the damage out of stealth to an additional 30% like Ricochet Throw, and lose the crit severity bonus. I might like a different effect like a chance to stun, but in the end this power needs to be balanced with other ranged AoEs.
    __________________________________________________
    The poster formerly known as Lightwave!
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    williamkonywilliamkony Posts: 582 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    m34nb34r2 wrote: »
    zomg... Ricochet throw is a BLAST. That means avenger mastery works on it! That could be REALLY REALLY NICE! Does it count as an aoe or a single target though, so I know what spec to take to boost its critical chance in the vindicator tree?
    m34nb34r2 wrote: »
    ...How does sonic device interact with ricochet throw? First hit only or on each bounce?

    I second these questions. XD Also, what is the energy cost at now? Wiki is slow to update. And, does the bounce only happen when fully charged?

    And-... Slightly unrelated, but as I'm not getting an answer to the question in my own thread, does anyone know whether "Make It Count" in the Guardian specialization tree is a multiplicative or additive damage buff?
    Dasher@Tool-box, donning his armor to prance into battle and blitz the enemy! No joke!
    Cupid@Tool-box, stunningly radiant stag ready to play matchmaker between villain and arrow!
    Vixon@Tool-box, frighteningly eager to summon despair for his adversaries!
    Jebin Zedalu@Tool-box, elementalist weaponmaster. ...One of these things is not like the others!
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    secksegaisecksegai Posts: 1,354 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    gravouis wrote: »
    boomrang gets its high damage from crits !
    its a prove fact and the energy cost I don't care about it its the damage it does for a aoe effect that I like.
    and where it is a aoe skill it shoudl do that much damage.
    night hawk does not have many aoe skills unlike lighting and its defense is lower then other archtypes.
    so there for the boomrang damage and crits makes it balanced.

    I'm guessing its a language barrier thing, but I think you completely missed the point of this discussion.


    back on topic: The energy costs were clearly broken, but damage wise I didn't see anything standout, especially in comparison to the original numbers I saw people posting out of PTS when it first hit there.
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    m34nb34r2m34nb34r2 Posts: 34 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Oh well, sonic device only procs on the first target =P Which suggests that it counts as a single target attack (the bounce is just a special effect after each hit)...

    I'm too slack to test ricochet on my 40s, so I don't yet know if avenger mastery works on it for sure, but it is labeled a blast power, so it should work unless it's bugged.
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    mrkuntamrkunta Posts: 34 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Some true heroes in this thread
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    sidreussidreus Posts: 48 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    I am not a numbers guy but I can speak about Richochet Throw a bit from my own experience with the power.

    I am leveling several heroes and they are both in closer level range (17-18). My ranged damage character is a ranged earth build runs in Ranged Damage mode with Kinetic Manipulation. My boomerang thrower runs in hybrid mode with AoPM.

    During alerts (or in normal game) Earth throw has better single target damage without advantage. Boomerang has better AoE damage if you charge it. While on hybrid mode Earth Shot easily reach 1000 damage on alerts while full charged boomerang can only pass 1000 via cricts on main villian. However Boomerang clears summons or hirelings very fast. Earth Throw can do that as well but you need an advantage. I don't think Richochet Throw can get higher main target damage with its advantage. As my characters run in similar upgrades (from Westside arc) to me both power seems balanced.

    Only difference is animations. Boomerang throws reminds me that corny Vanilla Ice song "Ninja Rap" while all earth animations looks really cool.:biggrin:
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    r9xchaosr9xchaos Posts: 533
    edited August 2012
    i think the damage output should be the same as the other powers that are similiar to that

    what i mean is ALL energy builders should do the same dmg.. or less dmg when have an extra effect...

    same goes for all other powers

    otherwise we will see all players with the same set of powers ..lol
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    stmothstmoth Posts: 284 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Oh more bugs? -laughs all the way to GW2-
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    secksegaisecksegai Posts: 1,354 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    stmoth wrote: »
    Oh more bugs? -laughs all the way to GW2-

    Stop making folks jealous. =P
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    agentnx5agentnx5 Posts: 1,999 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    stmoth wrote: »
    Oh more bugs? -laughs all the way to GW2-

    Are you a paid advertiser?
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    sockmunkeysockmunkey Posts: 4,504 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    stmoth wrote: »
    Oh more bugs? -laughs all the way to GW2-

    Comedy gold, considering they are having their own share of issues over there. :rolleyes:
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