Hand Blasters: Sooo Slooowwwww...

Its been a while since I used Hand Blasters. Last night I bought them from the newest Vendor... What the?!?!

What happened??? I'm really pissed I wasted 70 Marks!!! I mean, they are near unusable! I get interrupted before I can even pull off a WM move!

HB Weapon Mastery is poopoo.
Solar flame, Scissors Kick, Uppercut, Fist Slam, Power Discharge (dont spec WM if you want their full potential)
That's all that's good. Oh Meteor Blast was but they nerfed that.

And yes they're kinda slow

I dont mean to derail but I use MAs on a tank alt and the speed on it is pretty inconsistent, off target I would assume is standard speed but then you do the spinning punch on an add and it becomes slower, switch to another target it reverts to standard speed, then to another add it slows again.

I love handblasters. The WM is smooth and consistent. I'm able to get into the "rhythm" of them faster and more accurately than any other weapon in the game. I tank, heal, troll, and DPS w/ handblasters, quite successfully. I even DPS & heal effectively in PvP with them on the rare occasions that I venture into that pit of horror.

Well they used to be much faster at pulling off the WM moves. I feel like I'm playing under water with them now.

This really sucks as I am Earth atm. I actually use my weapon these days... I we want my Shield back

Don't think they've done anything to speed of HB in quite a while. On a side note, why are you using WM with Earth?
Use Solar Flame or Scissor Kick clip (if using HB)

Oh and eww...shield! Really? LOL

You're earth and HB? SF/RC spam for you! Watch your powerbar vanish into thin air!
Go back to shield or 1H.. never ever look back lol.

I have used HB longer than any weapon and I have to agree with you that they seem slower now than they were in the past.

Almost like the animation was slowed down so it takes that 1 second "They" are saying "every" move uses before the next move can be executed..

Fastest WM combo for me...DW charged double throw into explosive arrow. But, seeing as I use AM, WM is only there if cola/supply drop/sidekick on cooldown and no power.

I got a them mostly for the additional hand styles. Lol. Also cause I used to use them a lot at one point.

As for WM, I'm just using the weapon moves.

And Shields one of the best weapons in the game. Lol

In regards to the opening thread, I have been using WM HB on my troll ever since it came out and I can honestly say that with regards to speed I have not seen a change. But........ maybe what you are referring to is the cadence of the WM.

What I have seen change with almost every update or new DLC is that the "sweet Spot" to pull off the WM always seems to change. It's like the timing to pull off the WM or the cadence always changes with every update.

Meh- just figured like Sorcery that WM crit was excluded when using pet (I'm not as up on Earth lately)
To each his / her own on weapon use. I know 5 melee tap + hold hits hard, but so slow and terrible range. YUCK!

Anymore with pet class I use FS on just about anything, unless I'm worried about getting 1shot then I go HB SK or SF but like I said to each their own.

HB were adjusted for pvp reasons. The initial move was a block breaker so it was slowed down to accomodate.

The crit on using a power is removed, but that was never really what WM was about anyway.

Using a super power at the moment Weapon Mastery Combo impacts or completes will increase the super power’s chance to crit by 360% and its critical damage significantly. When you are in Controller / Healer / Tank role will also decrease the super power’s Power cost . Um why else would you use it? They already buffed the normal combos to match it?

A crit on a Super Power means little to a Precision based player.

As for the moves, I guess I just got used to using them at this point. Lol

No I get what you are saying, but originally when WM came out it was designed for 2 specific things.
1) Reduce power consumption of support roles
2) Add the crit bonus to do significantly more damage

With the way they have buffed basic weapon attacks, most of the time you are better off just using the usual weapon attacks in DPS role. This is especially true for precsion based players like Sorcery & Earth as you generally are just using tray powers as a clip and most damage comes from Weapon Attacks & Pets.

HB are way better than shield, Explosive shot and arrow fling are both solid, arrow fling is alot faster but both are decent hard hitting range attacks. Scissor kick without a WM spec is a solid option, alot faster than the tw WM options and easily clippable.

Ever since they made the changes to how the counters work (when they added the little symbol above your character)..... HB has been very easy to interrupt.

And essentially at the time they nerfed Pulse Beam BIG time by making it so that it only BB as you start to use PB.
But you then can be interrupted ALL the while you use PB. So using it for the full duration is a bit risky. Odds are you will be interrupted while using PB.
PB was pretty much worthless for a long time thanks to that...... but they gave it a boost to it's damage some time ago..... so PB became usable again.
You just need to be extra carefull when you use PB and be aware that you are very vulnerable as you use it.
So use Pulse Beam at your own risk.

As for WM..... I use Explosive Shot.... a LOT.....
but will be quick to switch to the Brawling WM (actual name escapes me right now) when I am in a mission that is an interruptfest.

So spam explosive shot most of the time.
But if not possible because you get interrupted a LOT...... go Mano a Mano with the Brawling WM.

The standardization of blockbreakers was back in GU36, and it affected all weapons not just HB. Since then the animation times have not been touched.